Ghost in the Machine
by seijuuro
Summary: When Misaka Mikoto falls apart after the Level 6 Shift Experiment, a certain Esper has to find out about it in the most obscure way. W/n: Spoilers.
1. Beyond the stupor

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 **Ghost in the Machine**

 _In which Misaka Mikoto did fall apart after the Level 6 Shift Experiment, and a certain Esper had to find out about it in the most obscure way._

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 **Note** : I have absolutely no excuse. I just miss writing, and I just miss writing about Accel and Misaka, so here we are again. Probably slow updates because finals are closing in on my unmotivated butt, but you know me, I get shit done (most of the time). And we have the whole summer, so guarantee y'all are gonna be seeing me popping up here quite often. Of course that is if everyone is not sick of me and my stories already, ha...

 **Warning: Spoilers, mostly from the Railgun manga and NT.**

 **Disclaimer:** Do I own the To Aru series? No. Do I wish I did? Hell. Yes.

 **Cover Image: **_Mikoto's Transformation from the To Aru Majutsu Railgun Manga_

Don't forget to leave a comment!

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 _"There was never a place for me here."_ _\- Misaka Mikoto, NT Volume 13._

 **I.**

 _ **Beyond the stupor.**_

He was late.

Granted, he was many things, but one of the things that Accelerator had come to hate most about himself was probably the questionable ability of his to always come late at stuff that was actually important – late to save the brat, late to save himself, late to pull his _fucking head out of his ass_.

But if there was one gigantic pile of utter shit of a failure he'd ever made, this – this had to be it.

"I failed."

Kamijou Touma said, and right there on his face was probably the most devastating look Accelerator had ever seen of the guy. His usual white shirt was crumpled and dirtied, there was fickle of blood crusted all over his skin and hair, and the tight fists curling against his sides spoke more than the rough, choked breath he was talking through ever could. The room they were in reeked of blood and antiseptics, and for once Accelerator did not seem to mind any of it.

"She…she was right _there_. I could have reached out faster…I fucking could have _saved_ her."

There, in front of them, lying on the bed was the pale, unmoving body of Misaka Mikoto. Her trademark chestnut hair is splayed flat on the whitewashed pillow, the once tanned lines of skin were now stark white, looking almost as transparent as his skin was. Her arms were rested above the thin blanket obscuring her frame, and they looked like they had been mauled across a garden full of roses – angry and purple marks marred in patches and welts on her already skinny limbs. Accelerator had seen many dead versions of the Esper girl, but he was certain the one lying in front of him then would be haunting his mind for the rest of his life the most. The girl looked as dead as everything else in the room was, and the stricken reality of it was a cold chill spiraling down his spine.

He wanted to rat out at the guy next to him, to curse and spat out whatever that was turning his insides out then, but he knew the Imagine Breaker didn't need his conniption fit to feel the wretchedness they were standing under then.

"If I'd just moved faster... _Fuck._ "

Kamijou breathed, huffed, hard knuckles tightening and loosening against the front of his pants. It was small and subtle, but still a habitual reflex of the body itself nonetheless. For the Imagine Breaker, it was to restrain himself under the crippling pressure of the what-ifs and constant regrets for what already passed. For Accelerator, it was simply holding himself back from blowing up the fucking _building_ they were in. His insides were a jumbling, incoherent mess, and his outer skin just felt dry and cracked. He was cleaner and much more appropriately dressed than Touma for sure, but the guy's mussed up appearance made a quite fitting picture of what Accelerator was feeling right then.

You'd think after all the shitstorm he'd gone through, he'd be pretty good at controlling himself by now. Or at least accustomed to it. Or even, resigned.

But the truth was that controlling himself was as itchy, as achy, and as wrenchingly as difficult as ever. This wasn't something he was used to. He was used to letting go, used to letting the rage, the contempt eat at his whole and releasing everything he had in himself to the world. He never cared about what occurred after the destruction, after the pain and the blood and the loss. At least, not until that morning, when a sudden shock wave rattled at his brain with the force of a bull and rendered him gasping for air for hours before a familiar scream cut everything to black.

And there they were now, with Misaka Mikoto's stiff and motionless body in the hospital's "special" ward, and him standing next to the last person he'd ever want to be around within at least a 20 mile radius. And the crippling, inimical force pushing down his throat and spiking into his skin weighed like an elephant in the room.

"It's all my fault – "

Touma continued, and _Damn, does he ever even shut_ up, but Accelerator knew better than to correct the guy. No one in the room then was at fault. But the hero would always be the hero, and that included taking every possible responsibility and shouldering them all. Accelerator almost snorted. Fucking dumbass. He was no hero, never would be, and the girl lying in front of him there would be his most trusted witness.

"Do…do you think she'll ever come back?"

Touma asked, and the sound was a heavy sigh ripping out from his throat.

Honestly? He doesn't know. He doesn't know any of this. He just woke up with the most painful headache of his life and the source of all his misery and guilt-trips a human vegetable. Funny how so much could happen in a day. Funny how so much he could realize just looking at a half-dead girl.

Dimly, he could still hear the soft cries of a bunch of girls outside of the door. All looked like middle scholars, one of them was wearing the same uniform as the Third, and the look in her wet eyes when she saw him appearing was enough to tug at his skin and prickle at his back. Besides him, Touma sighed, snapped, growled under his throat. Accelerator took another long look at the girl in bed, watched the IV pouch drip life back the tube drop by drop, listened to the flat silence of a PVS ward, and left.

The sky was bright and sunny when he opened the door. Accelerator went on his way back to home, and tried to squander away the urge to raise the world to the ground.

x

x

x

That night, he dreamed again.

He never slept anymore. He hadn't slept like a normal, functioning human being for such a long time. Now, it was just closing his eyes and leaving to another world, another place where his hands turned bloody and his screams got muffled in the empty void. The Sisters came in now and then, but they never cried, just stood and watched him tear himself apart. He let them. It was a pathetic excuse for redemption, but a habit nonetheless.

This time was different, however. The void looked the same, but his hands were still clean. There was no dead bodies lying around. He couldn't even feel his breathing. Accelerator just stayed and looked around, feeling exceptionally narcissistic with himself. Maybe for some mandate reason from some higher-ups above, he was finally spared a day.

But the train of thoughts was cut short, however, as soon as he felt his face suddenly getting slapped to the side with a resounding smack. Accelerator barely had time to register anything before he was knocked onto the ground, and a heavy weight dropped on to his stomach.

A familiar voice hissed from above him, and when falling strands of brown hair brushed lightly across his face, Accelerator felt his whole being turned upside down.

"What did you do this time, you jerk?"

(TBC)


	2. Stuck in a limbo

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 **Warning: Spoilers, mostly from the Railgun manga and NT.**

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 **II.**

 _ **Stuck in a limbo.**_

If there was one thing that could be fucking impossible, this would be it. And the only reason Accelerator was only sort of believing this was actually real and happening, was because of the human weight pushing down on his abdomen then.

"Get the fuck off me, Third-rate."

He said through his abused lungs, lying flat on the ground and hands planting firmly downwards. The Railgun's thighs were pressing dangerously close to his sides, and Accelerator was many things, but a perverted creep would certainly never make it into the list.

Surprisingly, the girl complied. Loosening the death grip she had on his collar and sliding off to the side, she stared as he sucked in the little nonexistent air he was missing and slowly got up from the ground. Everything was still so dark and still around them, and he had to squint to take a good look at her.

"What the _hell_ are you?"

"Excuse me?" Misaka blinked at him, like she should be the one to be surprised. "I should be asking you that! I just woke up and I was here. And nobody else was here. I shouted and screamed and ran around but nothing!"

 _No shit_ , Accelerator mused to himself, and dragged a careful look at the girl. She was wearing her usual Tokiwadai uniform, with her hair short and loose, bouncing on her shoulders. Her skin was perfectly normal, a little tanned and no scarring wounds whatsoever, as if Kamijou never carried her broken and battered body to the ER and he didn't spend hours staring at a pale, lifeless doll in the whitewashed hospital bed.

"What _do_ you remember?" he finally asked, and pushed himself upright to properly look at the girl.

"What does that even mean?" Mikoto murmured, and scrunched up her face in a frown. So real and alive. Accelerator tried not to stare. "I just told you. I woke up and I was here, and I was alone. Well, until I saw you from afar."

"No, but before this? Nothing?"

She stared at him flatly, and Accelerator felt himself deflate.

"What? I missed something? And where are we? And where is everyone?"

Mikoto muttered, and quickly followed as the boy next to her picked himself up to stand.

"There's no one else here, kid, and never will be besides me," he said, and looked down to face her.

"You're in my head now."

If Accelerator was expecting shock or anger, he was met with none. The girl just stared at him blankly, before huffing.

"Stop being ridiculous. I know you did something. Where is this place?"

"I didn't do shit you ignorant blockhead," he shook his head, and pushed at the girl by the shoulder. His hand was met with flesh and warmth as he shoved her around to take a look, and he tried not to curl his fingers back in recoil. "Pull your head out of your ass and look around you. This is nowhere. It's not a real place."

 _You're not the real you._

Mikoto frowned, shrugging off the hand on her shoulder and passing the guy a harsh glare before turning around. The place looked the same as she knew when she woke up, empty and flat and silent as it always was. Her lungs were dry and defunct, and as if a clash just hit Mikoto felt herself coming undone.

"You…you're not real." She murmured, and curled her hands back to her sides in tight contempt. The notion did not pass the older boy's eyes.

"I'm a state of mind here."

"I can't feel my lungs." _My heart._

"Neither do I."

A painful sound escaped the girl, and Accelerator watched silently as her shoulders shook and shuddered in tiny quakes. The brunette neither dropped to her knees nor turned around to face him, and he was grateful for that last bit of discomfort being avoided for them. Dimly, he considered waking up, but barely fixated back to the sight in front of him when she swiftly wiped around, eyes wet and face hard.

"What happened?" Mikoto breathed, and stepped forward to stare hard into his face. Accelerator glared back.

"You tell me. Just this afternoon you were beat up and unconscious in a hospital bed with Kamijou sulking like a pesty little bitch, and now I found you in my head as soon as I closed my fucking eyes."

"Touma?"

Mikoto repeated, and frowned to herself. She didn't remember the Imagine Breaker ever appearing. She remembered how she would start her usual day – waking up, fending off an erratic Kuroko who would always be trying to grope her, putting on her gym t-shirt and shorts because Tokiwadai was participating the annual Daihasei Festival and she was joining as a competitor –

 _Oh god oh god_ , she thought in despair, finally realizing the black claws and painful cries erupting from her body. Everything was going so well, but she finally cracked under the pressure, and let herself turn dead and numb as the blue ruin engulfed her whole. Touma was trying to save her, and this was what she was left with when she pushed him aside in her blinding rage.

She was dead.

From the side, Accelerator watched the girl unfold herself in great scrutiny. It still felt unreal the longer he was in it. This had to be some kind of illusion, and probably would just disappear as soon as he woke himself up. The girl would be gone, and lied silent and unmoving in Academy City's PVS special ward.

But like many thing else he's strayed away from, Accelerator knew, deep down, he couldn't. The annoying, unfortunate wench was a part of the Sisters as much as they were a part of him, and he would be dammed if any more of them disappeared. The anguish and torment had eaten at his whole, and to have another life lie upon them would send him to his end, just like how it always had before.

So it should only be understandable, that when the Railgun's eyes finally turned wide open at the realization of the current state she was in, and as she looked to him with the desperate kind of plea he'd never seen of the girl before, Accelerator let her, and felt his absolutes tightening in.

"Then what am I?"

x

x

x

Hospitals were alien, creepy little places, even for his standards.

It was at least one in the morning, and everything felt flat and void around. Accelerator easily made way through the closed gate with the security guard softly dozing off in his booth, and moved quietly behind the cameras' blind spots hung around the corners. It had only been half an hour since he dragged himself out of bed, yet it felt he had just been pushed out of his head and into a new one – a place where there was another presence in his mind, and a familiar voice nagging through his brain.

"For fuck's sake, stop fuzzing," he finally said, snapping harshly under his breath.

"I'm not even saying anything!" the voice retorted right away, and Accelerator thought murder.

"No, but you're fretting, and it's getting on my nerves. Literally. Quit it if you still wanna see what happened."

"It's not like you can even stop me either way. Jerk."

 _Bitch_ , Accelerator thought to himself, but the girl probably heard it anyways, judging from the indignant huff he received as a reply. If hell ever existed, this had to be it. A presence that never stopped talking, and couldn't even be put away. Distinctly, he felt like a cheap copy of Pinnochio. At least Last Order and the other SISTERS were tolerable and didn't stay in his head all the fucking time.

He already got a few theories jotted down of what happened to the girl as he trailed through hallways after hallways. The most possible outcome was probably stemmed from the MISAKA Network, but the only problem was how and why. Last Order and the rest of the SISTERS were still mourning over the loss of their Original and still on the process of nursing their abused heads back to normal, so he doubted he could ask for much help from any of them. He, and the Railgun's alien subconscious, were temporarily on their own for now, and the thought was an unsettling weight in his stomach.

"Hey hey stop. We're here."

Accelerator blinked, and turned to his left to see the whitewashed door with a name plate hung on it.

How she even saw that, he had no clue. But for once since they left his house, the girl was truly, finally silent. There was an upsetting jolt tugging at his mind, courtesy of her troubling emotions. Accelerator contemplated asking if she still even wanted to do this, but thought better of himself, and pushed the door open before stepping in.

The room was dark and quiet, minus the slow, steady beeping sound from a nearby heart detector. Accelerator let the door automatically shut close with a shuffle, and squinted his eyes through the obscure darkness to find the bed at the middle of the room, and the small figure lying in it. Kamijou Touma was nowhere to be found anymore, and he quickly crutched himself closer, distinctly wondering if the girl was seeing the same thing as he was. Her body was there just like how he left it, and the cold, quiet chill in the room was an unpleasant prickle on his skin.

It was silent for a while before she finally spoke up.

"So I'm dead?"

"The correct medical term would be 'comatose'," he said dryly, staring at the arms lying above the white blanket, still bruised and thickly carved. Even his own skin coiled at the sight of them.

"Well it sure looks like I might as well just be dead though."

Mikoto mumbled, and sighed, looking in grim acceptance at the pale, lifeless body lying in bed. This must have been what it felt like when she saw 10032 was put in the hospital. She wondered if the guy felt anything tugging at himself. She wondered if she did.

The whiffs of their emotions were impossible to detect which one was whose. Everything inside them was just a complete, disjointed mess of feelings all squished up together. The only similarity she could find then was the resignation they were both giving in, and the realization was a shock to her mind.

"Think you can get back into it?"

Accelerator dimly thought to the girl. It was a stupid notion, but worth a shot either way. Although the only reply he got back was a snort.

"Please, if I knew I could you wouldn't even be hearing me anymore right now."

"So you _are_ you," he mused darkly. "Mentally so, but not physically." He quickly added, when he noticed he wasn't making sense. Hell, none of this made any sense.

 _But why the fuck would you be in my head and not anyone else, like the Sisters'?_

"Gee asshole, if only I knew," Mikoto snapped, and even in his head it sounded loud and obnoxious. "I just woke up and I was here, remember?"

 _Unfortunately,_ he thought to himself, or maybe it was her thinking that. This clash of minds was going to take a very long while to get used to, and judging from where they were at in finding any possible solution, Accelerator was seriously beginning to fear for his future, which was already as wretched as it could ever be without the Railgun's unrequited 'help', thank you very much.

But either way, it had been a long day. He was physically dying in the morning and now he was dying in the head. His body was quickly fraying away in utter exhaustion. And by this time Accelerator found himself just not giving a dammed fuck anymore. The Railgun could stay there and scream in his head for the rest of the night for all she wanted, now, he was going to drag his tired ass back home, get himself back to bed, and shut the world away.

The girl must have heard his train of thoughts, however, because when he turned around and stepped back through the door, she did not make any objections. Her presence was still as unsettling and disturbing as ever at the back of his mind, but Accelerator plowed on, fusing his vector control to break into a run back home and disappeared under the city lights.

x

x

x

Accelerator woke up at seven in the morning the next day, mostly only because Yoshikawa's alarm was blasting through the whole apartment. His mind started its usual routine of picking back up the pieces for everything to make sense first, but he didn't open his eyes right away. Instead, Accelerator tried to look back into the void, and found the girl sitting in the darkness, arms and legs curling around herself in a fetal position. She looked up when she noticed his presence, and the look in her eyes when she stared at him was a strange punch to his guts.

"I guess we're stuck with each other for now, First."

Accelerator just looked at her in contemplation. He's had at least about ten thousand minds in his head before, he doubted there was a better chance that this one could actually be worse.

But judging from his luck at life, it probably would be.

(TBC)

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 **Note:** Just realized my two latest stories both have "In which" in their summaries, so much for originality ಠ_ಠ.

Thanks for all the following, favorites and reviews. Appreciate them and love to hear more!


	3. Needle in a Haystack

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 **III.**

 _ **Needle in a haystack**_

Technically, he was quite used to people getting inside his head.

"Oh my God. You're a total lolicon."

But this was a whole new level of intrusion for Accelerator.

"Stop saying stupid shit,"

The albino boy snapped angrily, chewing on his rice with more force grinding on his jaw than necessary, a visible vein popping up under the pale, fraying bangs. It had only been two hours since the morning had even started, and the girl inside his head had already made him feel like pulling all his hair out, or blow a bullet into his brain again, whichever was faster to help him end this new form of torture.

 _But it's true. You've been fending on my smaller version ever since you sat into the table!_

 _That 'smaller version' has a name, wench. And she's nothing like you, which is a fucking_ major _improvement by the way._

 _Hey!_

"Hey."

Accelerator blinked, and looked up to find Yoshikawa staring at him blankly, fingers holding the chopsticks dangling in mid-air with a piece of salmon.

"What's up with you?" she asked, her gaze flat and scrutinizing like the scientist that she was.

"What?" he shrugged, and grumpily held out his bowl for her to drop the food into it.

"I've been calling your name for the past minute, and you've been chewing your rice like you're eating rocks, kid."

"I'm fine."

He huffed, twirling his chopsticks and swallowing everything in one gulp. He was certain the two females of the house were still staring, and he quickly picked up his glass of water and downed it in one long sip, this time making sure to relax his jaw.

"'It's so rare for Accelerator to have breakfast with us these days!' MISAKA exclaims happily." The youngest of the house chirped in with a beaming smile, freckles of rice still visible on the corner of her upturned mouth.

Accelerator passed the little girl a look. There was a bandage wrapped around her head, messing up her chestnut hair cutely. She hadn't been much energetic like she'd always been since she was noted of the state of her Original Sister, so the smile was a huge improvement for the past few days.

It didn't mean the brat had to know he noticed that, of course.

"Then show your appreciation by shutting up," he muttered, pulling out a napkin and chucking it in her direction. It hit her square in the face. "And wipe your mouth. You look dirty."

"Don't worry Last Order. That's just his way of saying he's happy to eat with us today too."

The pretty scientist added in dryly, passing him a smirk. Accelerator could only retort with a glare.

"Lolicon."

The voice inside his head muttered. Accelerator just poured himself another cup of coffee and downed it in one gulp.

It was going to be a long day already.

x

x

x

"You just had coffee at home."

"Do you think it's really your business how much coffee I drink?"

There was a beat of silence, but then the voice continued.

"No, but it's finally made sense now. With all that caffeine intake no wonder why you're always so surly and rude."

 _Fuck me_ , Accelerator thought to himself, and crumpled the empty can of coffee in his grip. A few people passing him by glanced back at the strange murdering aura suddenly surrounding them, but quickly walked away at the look on his face.

"Thanks but I'll pass."

Mikoto said, and Accelerator knew he didn't need to look to see the winning smirk that would be proudly present on her face then.

"You know you're lucky you're already in a hospital right? Cause I have no problems whatsoever in sending you back there, you insolent brat."

"Oh so you're all cuddly and fuzzy with my younger self. But when it comes to me – "

"Last Order doesn't get on my nerves," …most of the time. "And at least she knows when to shut up." Most of the time.

"Riiiiiight."

"And I don't get 'cuddly and fuzzy' with anyone. Fuck, even your vocab is childish."

There was no reply then, and Accelerator took a moment to finally appreciate the blissful silence. He was almost tempted to set up a board – Accelerator 1, annoying, miserable wench 0.

"I could see that, you know."

It was final. He needed to get this girl out of his fucking head asap.

"Hey, where are we going?"

Mikoto peeked out from where she was sitting, and frowned when she felt an intense surge of power coursing through the space. Invisible and prickling in the air.

"Finding a way to get you out."

Accelerator grumbled under his breath, and switched on his choker. The nearest Sister around here was 10032, and she was in a research facility that was at least twenty blocks away from the convenient shop they were at. It could take half an hour to get there by foot, and by now Accelerator would rather do some mental exercise with his power and lose some batteries than stay with this girl and listen to her nonsense any longer.

"Finally." Mikoto said under her breath, a small smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Let's go!"

"Now that I could see too, brat."

The girl flinched at the sound of his voice, face turning a redder color before she swiftly turned away from him. Accelerator resisted a smirk himself, quickly throwing the crushed coffee can into the nearby dumpster before breaking into a vector-enhanced run.

 _Amateur._

x

x

x

Meeting other clones had always been unnerving for Accelerator, especially when one of them actually survived one of his cold, ruthless tortures in the past.

And not to mention it was even worse for him this time, when the Original of them also had to be in presence.

"'Accelerator?' MISAKA says as she wonders what the First Esper is doing here," 10032 murmured, blank eyes staring at him impassively.

"Yeah yeah," he nodded, casting a quick look around the office they were in. Last time he checked, 10032 was working as a personal assistant for the facility's most authoritative scientist. It would be extremely troublesome if whoever that was found out about he and the Railgun's little dilemma. "Look, we need to talk. Where's your boss?"

"'In her office' MISAKA explains, 'I am picking up a file for her here.'"

"Good. Stay."

The sister blinked, but before she could reply the pale boy had already swiveled around and promptly shut the door close.

"Don't forget the security camera."

The voice inside his head chided, and Accelerator clicked his tongue, before fusing his power into the camera hung in the corner. The lens fizzled before dropping down.

"'Is this about Onee-sama?' MISAKA asks, 'What do you want with her this time?'"

"Ha. Even they know!"

"Shut up."

Accelerator sighed, shooting the clone an impassive glare. "I don't want shit to do with that wench. What I want is to get that insufferable brat out of my head, and I need your help."

"'I don't understand' MISAKA says in confusion, 'Onee-sama is in a coma at Academy City's hospital. How could she be 'in your head''?"

"That's what I'm here to find out," he sighed, rubbing at his temples. "Look, just try infiltrating into my mind through the MISAKA Network, then you'll see."

"'I do not understand the point of th…'"

The clone murmured, then frowned as Accelerator felt a tweak in his head, and before he knew it there was another thought registering inside his mind. He could practically feel the Railgun scrambling up from where she was sitting to face the other girl, and settled back into keeping himself silent as the two sisters had their little reunion.

"10032."

"'Onee-sama', MISAKA says in wonder, 'You are here. You are really inside Accelerator's mind.'"

There was a long sigh on the other end. "Yes. Unfortunately."

"Can we just get to the damn point already?" Accelerator snapped. "How do I get her out?"

There was a pause, and then, "'I don't know,' MISAKA says."

"The hell you mean you don't know? She's literally in my head, like how all of you guys have been doing. How can you _not_ know how to retract someone the same as yourself?"

10032 had always been an interesting character out of the bunch, but to have that bland, know-it-all look directed at him in times like these, Accelerator just wished she could just be none of those. It was already bad enough his mind was reciting all the horrid physical pain he'd given her just by staring at that face.

"'Because', MISAKA replies slowly in explanation," the Sister stated, as if she was talking to a ten-year-old. "'This is not the real Onee-sama. She is not physically fit to be registered in the Network, only mentally. It is the same as you so this subconscious of her in your mind is not a part of us. We can see and understand her only because she is in yours.'"

"I am not a fault in the system."

Mikoto muttered, and Accelerator watched in resignation as the electromaster just slowly backed away from the both of them.

"I'm not just a 'subconscious'", she repeated, and stared, hard. "I am me as much mentally as I am physically. I did not ask for any of this. And I just want to come back."

The clone just stared at them, millions of calculations running in her wired brain. Accelerator could hear the chatter of more voices, and could only hope the impassive girl was trying to contact the other Sisters for assistance. His body was still recovering from the vector enhanced run he made earlier, and he was not looking forward to another long walk to the exit so soon with barely any improvement on their part.

"'I am not sure what I can do,' MISAKA says in apology. 'But I have just contacted our other Sisters. I think they will be able to help.' MISAKA adds."

"But for now?" Accelerator muttered, although he already got a pretty good idea about what they were supposed to do then.

"'For now, I believe Accelerator and Onee-sama's subconscious should wait,' MISAKA advises honestly." The girl replied, and if Accelerator was to entertain himself, she even sounded almost apologetic.

But on the other hand, "waiting" was one thing Accelerator was certain he and the Railgun could never actually do together. It has only been a day and he already felt like strangling himself, if this had to go on any longer, it would be a completely new level of despair he would be feeling every single day with that wretched brat resided inside his head.

"The feeling is very much mutual, you jerk."

"Can I at least shut her out of my head sometimes? No?" Accelerator looked pointedly at the other girl for confirmation, and felt himself deflate some more at the soft shake of head he got as a reply.

For a moment, the three presences just stared at the each other. There was a mix of reactions inside his head, and it was not a pleasant sensation. Eventually, they had nothing left to do besides leaving, as even 10032 started to chide as she was running late on her delivering mission to her boss.

The sky was still bright and sunny when Accelerator stepped out of the gate just less than half an hour later. The Railgun had been a quiet, taciturn figure inside his mind, and for once her silence was a disturbing feeling inside.

"All I want is to wake up."

She did say a few moments later, in a small whisper that he probably wasn't supposed to hear but he did either way. Accelerator just walked down the street, and for once in his life he finally found himself wanting the same thing as the other Level 5.

x

x

x

As sad as it sounded, between GROUP missions and taking care of Last Order, and besides the occasional death or fighting threats that happened a lot more than they fucking _should_ , there was not much going on in his life. So by that afternoon, when they already checked with 10032, came back to the hospital for a quick-runover of the Railgun's body, Accelerator was pretty much free. And there was only one thing he would always do when he was unoccupied, and by this time no amount of bullshit could stop him from doing it either way.

"You really need to stop drinking so much coffee."

Mikoto commented, as Accelerator finished another can of caffeine. The older boy just scoffed at her inside his mind, and chucked the can into the nearby trashcan.

The girl sighed. "Where are you going now?"

"Home. I'm taking a nap. So shove it for a while."

"Don't you have, oh I don't know, what normal people do. School? Work?"

Now that was an unsettling idea, even he had to make a face. "First of all, I'd eat nails before I actually step into a school. And yes, just to get your nosy ass out and away from me, I do have work, which is why I need to get some sleep now because they can call me in later."

"What kind of work?"

"Oh trust me kid –" Accelerator muttered, and stuck the key into the apartment's door.

"You don't wanna know."

There was no reply then, and Accelerator almost rejoiced at the welcoming silence. But only until he pushed the door open, and a pair of wide, familiar dark eyes immediately zoomed in on him as soon as he looked up.

"'Accelerator?' MISAKA asks in wonder," Last Order said, and jumped down from the chair she was seated on.

"Well this is bad."

Mikoto said, wincing inside his head. Accelerator could only agree in silence, and quickly shut the door close. By the time he turned back, Last Order was already standing in front of him. And the big, doe eyes staring up at him then were a straight punch to his gut.

"'Accelerator' MISAKA says as MISAKA looks for an honest answer, 'Why do you have Onee-sama's consciousness in your head?'"

x

x

x

"Wow, that's so odd, ne."

Last Order said, wordlessly swinging back and forward on her chair in deep thoughts. They were sitting at the dining table, as even Mikoto decided the little girl was going to find out either way, and how both of them totally should have seen this coming when 10032 contacted the other Sisters through the Network. Accelerator just simply sat down and gave the Sister a brief summary of what had been going on so far, mostly just to avoid thinking about the Railgun thinking, her thoughts always a rush, incoherent trail in his mind.

"Look, how she got into my head is not the point anymore," he stated, matter-of-factly, "What's important right now is how to get her the hell out."

"'Of course' MISAKA says as MISAKA tries to console Accelerator," the little girl chirped, bouncing on her seat. Last Order hadn't looked that lively ever since she found out about the comatose state her Onee-sama was in, and at least that was something good came out today for Accelerator. "'But as 10032 said, this has never happened before. So the Sisters and MISAKA must take time to study how to do that!'"

"Well make it quick." He sighed, and stood up from his seat. All these repetitions of the past few days were really starting to grate on his already thinning patience. "I need to get some sleep. So go do your thing or whatever, and call me as soon as you have a lead or anything."

"Are you two going out tonight?"

Inside his head, Misaka Mikoto choked on her breath. Accelerator just swiveled around on his heels, and shot the ten-year-old his nastiest glare. The younger Sister just stared at him, an ever knowing grin playing on her lips. She'd totally meant to drive that comment into a different direction.

"Is this a genetic thing for you chicks, huh?" he said, and simply regarded the child with his most unamused face. "Saying stupid shit and getting on people's nerves all the time?"

 _Hey!_

"'Only when MISAKA feels like it,' MISAKA says cheerfully."

"Well drop it. Or else you'll be wearing a new cast on your head pretty soon."

"'Uh uh. Accelerator would never do that to MISAKA,' MISAKA says in complete assurance."

"Jerk."

The voice in his head scowled. Accelerator just rolled his eyes, swiftly turned around, and made way back into his room, slamming his door shut with a resounding bang around the house just to make a point. The Original also seemed to realize his intention, and quickly retracted herself away, for once quiet and unyielding.

But the blissful silence did not last long for any of them, because just half an hour later, after just fixing himself in bed, his phone rang. Accelerator just stared at the caller's number, and felt his body tightening in focus. He quickly eased himself out of bed, and made way to the closet for a thin, black hoodie jacket good enough to wear for the rest of the night, the Railgun's curiosity ringing in his mind.

"You wanted to know, didn't you?" he told her, just for the heck of it. "What I do for my work?"

"Well, yeah. But – "

"Then this is your chance, brat. And trust me."

He said, and pulled up his hoodie as he reached for a case of portable charger under his pillow.

"You're not gonna like it."

(TBC)

* * *

 **Note:** Again, I somehow managed to cram going to classes, going to work, and writing this all in the same day. Someone needs to put a record on me cause I am on a roll ayyy.

As always, thanks for all your reading, following, favorites and reviews. You guys sure know what to do to keep me going :))

 **Note (reedited) :** So it's only been a day this got updated, but the reviews already blew up. This was what you got when you tried writing a chapter after 17 hours of non-stop studying and working.

But anyways, everything was fixed, updated and redid. Thanks for all the reminders guys. And yes, I will be sticking with the time set of after the Level 6 Shift Experiment, so no Worst. That was awfully wrong of me and I am sorry y'all had to read through that haha. Feel free to notify for anymore fault!

27/04/2017.


	4. Eyes wide open

**.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **IV.**

 _ **Eyes wide open.**_

He was leaning against the lamp street, sipping on his drink and counting down the time with the ticks in his head.

It was well into the night by the time Accelerator finally made it to the meeting spot, half an hour earlier than planned and with no one around. It was a usual pattern for them. Tsuchimikado had always been a tardy bastard, Musujime was probably still busy trying to get up from her beauty sleep, and in all honesty Accelerator wasn't even sure what the fuck Etzali would often be doing most of the time. He knew there would be at least thirty minutes before any of them could actually start their tasks for the mission, thus the infamous Esper wasted no time in making a detour to the nearby convenience store, and treated himself with another can of dark coffee. It was his first mission for Academy City after his short gun-training the other day, and judging from the message he received earlier, it was going to be a long night for all of them.

That was, including the pesty, nagging presence in his mind.

The minute he left the house had morphed into an hour and a half, and Accelerator eyed the street lights on the bridge above suspiciously. Surely the contraption must have malfunctioned, or Last Order had somehow managed to actually succeed something in record time, because the prospect of the Railgun finally clamping up for two good solid hours sounded even more unfathomable. He'd finished down to his second can of coffee since he left the house, half-heartedly anticipating a few rounds of verbal fights with the miserable girl like how they would always do, only to come up empty-handed so far.

"Oi, you're still there?"

"What's the choker for?"

"What?"

Distinctly, he felt a stir, and took a peek inside to see the brunette sitting on the ground, arms and legs curled around each other as her brown mane of hair fell like a veil in front of her face.

"I didn't notice at first because I can only see what's around you outside," she continued, without even looking up. "But when you reached for that charger…What does that thing on your neck do, Accelerator?"

The boy in question stiffened. Accelerator looked down at the ground as he contemplated the query.

"I took a bullet to my brain and busted up my frontal lobe. Happy?"

"Frontal lobe?" the girl frowned, before her eyes widened in horror. "That…you shouldn't even be able to stand and talk after such a damage. A normal person…"

"For fuck's sake, wench. Can't you see?"

Accelerator growled, and frowned when he finally heard footsteps padding close. He turned back, just in time to see a familiar mop of dark black hair peeking out from the darkness.

"Are, you're here early."

Etzali smiled, stepping out under the street lamp. The magic wielder's eyes were dark and mischievous as ever, and inside Accelerator heard the girl let out a hitch of breath.

 _I was never normal, and never will be._

Mikoto looked up at the grate in the esper's voice, and felt her absolutes falling apart as she felt the sudden surge of emotions flowing through them.

"And you're gonna see exactly why tonight."

x

x

x

"Remember, Ritoku is the main target. Eliminate him by any means, including those in your way."

Accelerator looked at the girl in front of him in thoughts. Musujime Awaki had arrived just a few moments after Etzali and listened to the magician's briefings with him. It was an order directly set out by Academy City, which included another termination of an underground operation that was on its way to disable the city's communication network. It was a load of information for a mission summary, and whilst Accelerator never stopped listening, his mind was on another different page.

The Railgun had quickly reverted back to be a silent presence after Etzali appeared, and did not even show up when he tried to look inside his mind. The pale Esper considered calling her out, but thought better of himself. If what he had been briefed would be successfully carried out, there would be much blood spilling and man-slaughtering. And even though the Third Esper was a sufficient fighter and had seen as much horror as much as a life like hers could have, Accelerator doubted there was any chance she would be walking away from this mentally unscathed.

He knew his warnings were starting to get into her thick head, but even Accelerator could see even he probably wouldn't be anywhere better than her, especially if the girl would have to witness anything that he was about to do.

"Hey."

The guy blinked, and looked up to see Musujime staring at him, a strange look on her face.

"What's up with you?"

Shaking his troublesome thoughts away, the Esper fixed himself straight again. "I'm fine. What?"

The teleporter blinked at him, but said no more. Instead she inclined her head, and Accelerator looked up just in time to see their destination showing up in front of them.

"We're here."

They were finally at District 10, and upon first glance, Accelerator could already notice signs of an operation right away. There were different stealth tactics the Skill-Out had put all along the area: electric fences to short out security robots, lengths of colorful cloth draping across rooftops to render any possible escape routes, as well as the destroyed cameras scattering throughout the district road.

The phone in his pants suddenly vibrated, and Accelerator held it up, staring at the caller's ID before flipping it open.

"Tsuchimikado?"

The addressed guy's voice rang on the other end gleefully, and Accelerator scowled.

"Just wanna congratulate you on your first mission. And I also want to pass down a few advices."

"Advice? Like what?"

"Well," the guy chuckled, but then there was a moment of silence. Accelerator frowned, about to snap when the guy spoke again.

"Listen. Do not trust us."

The boy frowned at the phone. "Huh?"

"All of us are going to get in trouble if our existence is found out. A group like us will have no union."

Grated, the boy could only glare at the phone. "You think I'd be grateful if you tell me that?"

"If you only follow the principles set by the City Council you'll never be able to take them down. You must think of your own way to win in every situation –"

"And you know, we both have something we want to protect."

Dimly, inside, Accelerator felt the girl stir from her wake. He tried to not falter at her surprise, and focused back on the caller instead.

"Fine. Is that it?"

"And complete it fast. Musujime is probably on her way already."

And then as if on cue, a blast of dust flooded the alley, followed by a resounding boom. Accelerator frowned, staring into the speaker in annoyance. The redhead had managed to disappear on her own when he was busy on the phone. "I didn't know this was a competition."

"Nah. She probably just wants the bounty."

"So the deal is still applicable?"

"She's just like you."

"Really now? Fine."

Accelerator sighed, before hanging up. Inside his mind, Misaka Mikoto rose up from the dark. There was a hard stare on her face, and her jaw was tightly locked. She looked up to stare at him straight in the eyes.

"Go on. Show me."

The guy just stared at the girl, his mind quickly chalking up the results of finishing in less than ten minutes to ensure the choker's batteries. The Railgun's eyes were hard and steady, brown hair framing her face as she turned away from him and forced her gaze outside. Her resolute was settling in, and he felt it tighten around them. This was the girl that broke and bent under the monster brought out of her by the hands of the city's corrupted. She was not backing down from seeing this Dark Side of Academy City either, and if she had to do it through watching him executing it, she would.

Accelerator could only watch her, and switch on his choker. The vectors around him stiffened under his hands, and he curled them in. The Railgun's brown hues were bright and hard in his mind, and right then and there, Accelerator knew.

There was no going back, for any of them.

x

x

x

The brawl lasted no more than five minutes, and by the time the last scream was abruptly cut off, he was done.

Accelerator switched off his collar, and swiftly turned around. The deaths were all meaningless, and he had long grown accustomed to the fresh and blood of men taking orders from the higher-ups. The Railgun had not said a word since the moment he lifted his hands and drilled a hole into one of the guys, and Accelerator left the girl to dwell on everything by herself. This was his life now, and if she had a problem with it, he didn't give a flying fuck. The only thing that mattered then was the mission.

Ritoku was nowhere to be found so far, and Accelerator took the time to examine everything around. Chances were Musujime had already got to him, and as unsettling as that sounded, at least they were wrapping up the task.

"Then you don't have to wait no more."

Accelerator faltered on his steps, and looked up just in time for a looming shadow from above to appear.

"Accelerator."

"Komaba Ritoku."

The Esper replied, glaring all the way through. "Tell me why."

The tall, foreboding man only looked down at him in grim seriousness. "The reason Skill-Out attacked Espers is not a fun story to tell."

"So you're just gonna attack everyone to create chaos in the city, is that it?"

"Not everyone. We picked our targets carefully."

Fucking dumbass. He always had to come down to the last resolution. "You seem awfully calm. Do you know what you're getting yourself into, huh?"

Instead of replying, the man only thrust out an object, and threw it down on the ground at his feet. It was Awaki's flashlight, dirtied and tainted with blood.

"I killed her."

There was a hitch of breath inside his mind, and Accelerator snarled, glaring up at the older man.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Ritoku simply said. "Our organization was supposed to set out fully by now."

"Really now?"

Accelerator grinned, and quickly reached up at the choker on his neck. "Because you do know anyone that stands in my way will always end up getting butchered, right?"

The threat went on deaf ears, as the man only tapped his finger against his neck, and spoke out loud the one thing that rendered him useless the most.

"That choker. It's a transmitter for electronic information, isn't it?"

Accelerator only clicked his tongue, and vector-fused a platform to push himself forward. But before he could reach the man, Ritoku took out from his jacket a cylindrical container and burst it open with a kick, releasing several metal-like scales into the air like flower petals. Accelerator barely had time to react before his vectors disappeared, and then he was spiraling downwards before landing on the lower platform with a resounding thunk, scraping his skin and outer clothes.

The Esper groaned at the impact, and looked up just in time to see the man descending down. He rolled out of the way just right before Ritoku's foot could crash down on him, and raised up his gun.

"Damn it."

"Look out."

The Railgun's voice resounded in his head, and Accelerator huffed when Ritoku stomped down on the metal staircase and broke it with his force, sending the other Esper falling down another floor before dropping on the ground with a heavy thump. His left side ached at the impact, and Accelerator groaned at the burning pain sweeping into his shoulder.

Ritoku jumped down to stand right in front of him, and Accelerator bolted up, rolling out of another gunfire shot.

"To your right."

Accelerator frowned at the girl's voice, before wiping back to find the gun Ritoku kicked out of his hand earlier laying on the ground nearby. His mind quickly did the calculations, and Accelerator made his choice. He quickly reached for it and swiveled around to fire a shot, hitting one of the draping cloths above them.

"Last chance."

He turned around, and Ritoku was there, tall and stoic with the loaded Smart Weapon pointed straight at him.

"Make your choice. Where should I shoot to kill you now?"

Gripping at his gun in tight desperation, Accelerator could only glare up at the man. He already proved his assumption right, and there was only one chance to end it now. Ritoku looked down on him with blank acceptance, and Accelerator raised up his gun.

The triggers pulled and two gunshots resounded through the whole alley. There was a gurgle of blood, and Accelerator looked up just in time to see Ritoku with wide, disbelieving eyes, dark blood sweeping out from his shirt and the gun loose dropping in his hold.

"H…How?"

"Dumbass. Your Chaff Seeds cause electromagnetic scrambling by sending bits of metal into the air, don't they?"

He looked up, directing the man to do the same thing. The cloth above them he shot at earlier was open at one end, and the wind was blowing through it like an airway, sweeping the metal bits away like falling flower petals.

"Now then,"

Accelerator muttered, and pushed himself up. "A measly level 0 like you had the guts to face a Level 5…Do you want to try it for a second time now, huh?"

Seeing the danger ahead of him, Ritoku turned down, reaching for the insides of his jacket again but was quickly rendered when his hand suddenly burst out blood. The man barely had time to react before the Level 5 reappeared in front of him, and thrust him against the nearby wall, sending him skidding across the ground, a loud smack echoing around the alley.

"Checkmate, huh?"

Accelerator muttered, and fixed himself up straight. "It's not a crime to be a Level 0. But you're a thorn in everyone's eyes thanks to shitty organizations like Skill-Out creating chaos around. Equality? Safety? Cut the crap. You're only doing more harm to yourself more than anyone else."

Blood had swept out from both corners of his mouth, and another was pooling around him like a puddle. But Ritoku simply stared up at him, before smirking.

"Let's say, hypothetically, what would happen if those who have stronger powers were to play a game to see who could kill the most level 0's, what would you do?"

Inside his mind, he felt the Railgun stiffen. Accelerator frowned at the notion.

But the other man barely noticed any of them, instead directing his gaze at the phone nearby, which was flipped open from their brawl and displaying a picture of him and a smiling, little blond girl hanging onto his arm.

"I always knew this day would come, sooner or later."

The scene was so achingly familiar, and Accelerator felt his insides twist.

"Looks like you and I are in the same situation,"

The man continued, never faltering as he raised up his gun. There was a whirlwind of emotions suddenly flooded through him, and Accelerator took a small step back in wary.

"Consider this a gift, boy. Carve this ugly scene into your heart."

"Waaait…!"

Inside his mind, the Railgun screamed. But the shot was already fired with a booming blast. Accelerator felt the resounding force of the bullet bounced off his reflecting shield, and before he could realize a splatter of blood was spilled, and then there was nothing but silence, and Ritoku's deformed body fell down sideways with a disturbing thump.

"Oh God,"

Mikoto breathed, staring in utter shock and disbelief at the scene. There were trails of tears running steadily down two sides of her face, and her hands were planting firmly on the ground, fists curling tight inside themselves.

There was a mixture of emotions bouncing off her and pushing into him, and the pale Esper let them sweep in. His heart was heavy and loud against his ribcage, his shoulder burned searing hot pain into his skin. Accelerator just stared at the bloody pulp that was used to be the cold, stoic man, and knew everything he said before pulling the trigger was right.

It would forever be carved into both of their minds.

x

x

x

"Thanks for the hard work. We'll clear up the bodies and erase all evidence."

Etzali's voice was calm and emotionless on the other end of the line, and Accelerator felt his irritation spike.

"We'll send the car over to take you home."

"Beat it," he grumbled into the line. "I'll get home by myself."

"That's alright then. But make sure not to let yourself be seen. We must always hide our – "

The pale boy flipped the phone close before the magician could finish. Accelerator put the device away, before swiftly turning around just in time for a slim figure to walk out from the dark.

"Still alive, Musujime Awaki?"

The redhead stepped out from the valley, seemingly unscathed as she nodded at him. "I was watching for a while. But when did you realize?"

"Please, it was clear as daylight," he muttered, remembering the gun that popped out of nowhere when he fell down on the ground.

The girl only smirked at him. "Is that how you talk to the one that saved your life?"

"Savior?"

The boy only muttered, before turning away. "Maybe when you're dead."

"Ara, where are you going?"

"Nothing important."

Accelerator mumbled, and flipped open the phone in his grip. The picture of Komaba Ritoku and the little girl popped up bright and clear, sending a strange punch to his guts.

He quickly switched to press on another button instead, and a line of names popped up, long and perfectly arranged in a list.

"Just some overtime work."

He scrolled down the names, and Accelerator didn't need to look to know the girl in his head was also staring at the screen. Focused and fervent.

"Some _free_ overtime work."

x

x

x

It was well into the night by the time Accelerator finished his "overtime" business. It obviously was not much of a trouble – fending off delinquents and erratic thugs had always been a part of his life growing up. The girl was still as silent as ever, but for once since he left the alley, there was no trace of indignant protests or scorn.

He had just sat himself on a nearby bench on a sidewalk when she finally decided to speak up.

"So that's how it was."

The top Level 5 only huffed at her. "What the fuck did you expect?"

"Less blood. Less deaths. But who am I kidding? This is the Dark Side of Academy City we're talking about."

Mikoto whispered, a sad smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. Ritoku's suicide was as devastating for her as it was for him. Strangely enough, the girl didn't blame him for the man's death, and the realization was an unsettling weight in his stomach.

As if reading his mind, which she probably did, the girl only looked up at him, knees and arms pressed up close around herself.

"Don't you ever wonder why I never questioned how Last Order ended up living with you and Professor Yoshikawa? Or that you were using a cane? The only reason why I didn't know about your choker was because I never saw you using them, nor could I see it from my point of view in here."

The notions suddenly clicked, and Accelerator felt his heart sink to his stomach.

"You looked through my mind."

"Technically, I looked through the Sisters' minds thanks to the Network you're connected to. But yes, I did."

The boy could only sigh. "How much?"

"Not every detail. But more than enough."

' _I saw you saving Last Order. I saw you saving them_ ' was implied, but even the girl was not that quick to let go.

"I was falling into despair when that thing took over me," she continued without looking up, even though they both knew he was listening to every word she was saying. "I just came to the realization of the Darker Side of our world then, and I let my anger get the best of me. We're all at where we are now because of me."

Her memory was rolling back in waves, and Accelerator saw through them in flickers and voices. There were screams and echoes resounding in his head, and he took a moment to relish in the same despair he'd indulged himself in for all his life. The powers at the tips of their fingers were hot and blinding, and Accelerator felt himself coming undone at the girl's implications.

They were a mirror image of each other.

A circus fun house mirror, twisted and reflecting, but still.

He used to live with only a blinding rage at the world to keep himself going, and she was doing the same thing when they tore her apart. And now the irony of that was slapping them in the face, with him relying on the lives he'd forever taken away and her relying on the last person that she would ever turn to.

"I'm never going to say sorry, because you don't deserve that."

Misaka Mikoto did say, however, after a moment of silence, and Accelerator felt his insides turn and twist at her words.

"But thank you."

For a minute, Accelerator only stared at her. He wouldn't allow himself to reply. His voice would break, and so would the rest of him.

"I'm not a hero." He stated.

"Hell you're not," the girl huffed, and swiftly turned away from him. Her shoulders were shaking, and he pretended not to notice it. She paused, gritting at her teeth.

"Thanks."

She repeated, finally, and that was the end for the both of them.

He didn't know what to say so he didn't, and instead retracted himself away. Their minds were different but the same, and even though the girl did not pester anymore, he could still feel her resolves settling in. And for the first time, Accelerator realized they were going down the same path together, and he did not mind it one bit.

Nothing was ever normal in their life, and never would it be.

x

x

x

There was no more words to be said, and after everything that happened, Accelerator figured he damn well deserved a break. Thus, it was no surprise that he would be making a turn at a corner to drop by the local convenience store, allowing himself a sweet cup of blissful caffeine.

What was surprising, however, was a grown woman cuddling the nearby mailbox in the middle of the street, moaning and mumbling to herself. She looked up when she noticed his footsteps approaching, and Accelerator felt the girl inside his head choke on her breath.

"Haaaaai haaaaai, I'm Misaka Misuzuuuuuu!"

The brown eyes popping open and staring back at him were horribly familiar, and Accelerator barely managed to recognize the trademark features of the Misaka SISTERS before he was suddenly tackled to the ground. The younger brunette inside his mind shouting and stuttering all the way.

"M…mom?!"

(TBC)

* * *

 **Note:** It's only ten right now but my eyes are already shutting close by themselves. Delightful.

Well, as you can see, I'm trying to follow the canon timeline. Of course, "trying" is the key word here, so expect minor differences. But the events will stay mostly identical to the original storyline...At least I hope.

Thanks for all the following, favorites and reviews!


	5. As all get out

.

.

.

 **V.**

 _ **As all get out**_

There should be a limit on how often people could come at him without warnings, Accelerator thought in utter disdain as he found himself lying flat on the sidewalk, staring up at the sky with great annoyance – a woman clinging to his legs and babbling nonsense all the way.

But what was much more troublesome then, was the baffled girl in his mind.

"So this is your mom?"

"Right now, yes. Unfortunately,"

Mikoto sighed, staring out in exasperation at the scene playing out in front of her. This was the last thing she expected to be happening at this time of the day, although the fact that her mother would be drunk, helpless, and talking to herself on a side of the street at 9 in the night was quite true. It was just her luck that the last person she would ever want Misuzu to meet was also present – and seemingly, getting harassed by her.

"Well then how the hell do you get her off?"

"Uuuhhh…"

"My hobby is studying number theory, I'm good at swimming and my boobs are 91 centimeters!...Oh, wait. I'm married."

The older woman grinned, cutting off the two and still stubbornly straddling at his legs with a thoughtful look on her flushed face. Accelerator glared, but he was barely able to reply anything before a hand suddenly came up and smacked right into his face, dragging down. Inside his mind, Misaka Mikoto sizzled and squeaked.

"C'mon, Daaaaddy will be mad so don't touch me!" Misuzu moaned, blissfully unaware of the death aura tainting the air as she pushed herself up. The boy in front of her quickly scrambled away, a completely murderous look on his face, not that the latter noticed. "Are…Do you know where Dangai University's database center is? Hey…Hey, white-haired, do you know anything about it? Heeeeyyy, heyyyyy! Don't ignore me!"

Accelerator cursed, just in time a hand shot out to grab at his ankle again, and next thing he knew his face was against the ground, the Railgun choking and sputtering inside his head.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" the albino blew on his bangs, frowning when he felt hands suddenly crawling up his legs. He swiveled back just in time to meet face to face with busty breasts and misty, dark brown eyes.

"Miiisuzu-san has to go study there."

The woman groaned, all up in his face and straddling his body immobile. Her breath reeked of alcohol, and the Esper felt the veins on his temples popping out.

"How the hell should I know? Go call a bloody taxi or something!" he barked, wiggling but stopping when the air suddenly grew quiet. He looked up just in time to see the woman advancing closer at an alarming speed, lips pouting and jutting out readily.

"You know white-haired, I kiss everyone as long as they're younger, man or woman!"

Inside his mind, Mikoto screamed in utter horror. Accelerator could only reach up to switch on his choker, and feel his loathing at the world multiplying in strides.

At this rate, the MISAKAs should might as well just zap him in the head and end this cycle of misery for good.

x

x

x

"I…I have no idea what to say."

Misaka Mikoto announced, a fading blush tainting her cheeks and her sigh resounding in his head. Accelerator only scoffed in reply, looking on as the taxi drove out into the road, carrying the intoxicated woman in it. Thankfully, his reflex was timed perfectly, and the top Esper was just a tad bit grateful for it – having successfully peeled the woman off of him before any inch of their faces could physically touch each other. He was certain both he and the Railgun had enough of their fair share of horrors to live by after today. Her careless, fucking crazy mother had no need to add her part into their secret little mess.

"Then show your regret in the form of silence."

He replied with a mutter, frowning when the phone in his pants' pocket suddenly rang. The pale boy stared at the caller's ID in contemplating, before picking it up.

"Accelerator, how perfect. I have something I want to talk to you about," a familiar, and very flat voice of a man spoke on the other line. "Oh, it's happening now, actually."

"What?"

He said with a frown, turning around when the familiar sound of an explosion could be heard. He looked out at the opposite street to see faint traits of smoke starting to appear behind the tall, bright skyscrapers.

"That Misaka Misuzu-sama applied for permission to use the Dangai University database center," the other line replied breezily, "so we have attacked it."

 _No shit_ , the Esper thought to himself, looking on at the scene in contemplation. Inwardly, he knew the Railgun was also observing the view, and the pale Esper did not need to look further to know they were thinking of the same thing.

"She is the mother of Ms. Misaka Mikoto, the third-rate Esper as you probably already know," the voice continued, flat and blank. "Do you know the Recovery Movement?"

Inside his mind, Accelerator felt the girl gasp in realization. The pale Esper only sighed in contempt, already knowing what direction this talk was heading to. "Is it about parents taking their kids elsewhere before the war breaks out?"

"Yes! So you see, having a great number of students leave Academy City is an issue. Mrs. Misaka-san here is acting as a representative for the parents of the students in this case, or more specifically, for her daughter, which is not surprising, considering the state our infamous Railgun is in right now."

He didn't ask how they came to know of the girl's coma, judging on the fact that they were talking to the head of GROUP and all. Accelerator was much more focused on what the man had to say next, even though he already knew neither of them was going to like it.

"So, we have decided to stop her short. Will you help us, Accelerator?"

"You wouldn't."

Mikoto said, glaring up at him, hands curling tight against her sides. "I won't let you."

"Give me a fucking break, wench. Like I ever give a damn."

He thought back in annoyance, gripping tighter on the phone against his ear.

"Originally, Skill-Out was hired to take care of it, but…Well," the man sighed in exasperation. Accelerator could practically imagine him shrugging his shoulders on the other side. "They're rather bad at stuff like this. But if you help us out, then – "

"No thanks," the boy muttered, cutting off the latter as he glared up at the smoke blurring at the skies. "I have my own shit to deal with. What you're planning over there has nothing to do with me."

There was a beat of silence on the other line.

"I see," the man finally said, albeit with no less disdain. "Then please hurry home. I'll take care of your power until then."

There was only one thing he meant then, and Accelerator snarled into the line. "Wait what – No, you bastard…"

"I'll be taking my leave then. Good night, Accelerator-san."

The voice abruptly hung up before he could finish. The pale Esper lowered his phone, looking down at the device in utter disdain.

"Fucking asshole."

"They're coming for my mom now?"

Mikoto huffed, cutting him off. Accelerator looked inside to see her standing with arms crossing in front of her, a deep frown marring the tanned face. She looked up when she finally noticed his presence, and the big, hazelnut eyes staring up at him then were quickly fading into a dark shade of focus.

"I can't let them do that."

"Obviously," the latter clicked his tongue, shoving his phone back into his pocket as he picked up the crutch from laying on the ground. "Whatever. Fucker is tampering with my powers again anyways. I'm gonna show him exactly who he's messing with. Let's do this."

"Then great. C'mon quick, we must get there before the – "

The girl said, before suddenly cutting herself off with a surprised yelp. Accelerator frowned, looking up just in time to hear running footsteps approaching. A figure quickly zoomed past right in front of them, and the top Esper felt his irritation immediately spike at the sight of a familiar mop of black, messy hair.

Kamijou Touma was running across the street, talking with a phone pressed against his ear and looking very urgent. Accelerator felt his hand tightening on the cane handle.

The memory of the awakening punch was still very fresh in his mind, painful and fucking stinging. It was still the biggest and most humiliating blow of his life so far, and the bitter, raging loathe the Esper bore towards the Level 0 still burned deep inside. Accelerator had to physically calm himself down before his turbulent emotions could get a better hold of him, loosening the tight grip against the crutch. Sure he would always love to shove a fist against pretty boy's face in revenge, but there was more important stuff to deal with right now. Touma and his overbearing, heroic ass could go and rot for all he cared.

"What is he doing here…?"

Mikoto mumbled as she watched the boy's figure quickly disappearing down the street, seemingly uncaring of the other Esper's reaction.

"Who the hell cares?" Accelerator muttered in response, ignoring her indignant huff. "You wanna go save your mom or not?"

"Jerk."

The girl said under her breath, not like he gave a damn. Accelerator simply ignored her instead, and fixed back the choker against his neck. Mikoto felt the air around her started thickening with familiar pressure, the latter's turbulent powers settling in, and quickly gathered herself back to focus again.

"Let's go then!"

x

x

x

"Amateurs,"

Accelerator grumbled, putting his gun away as he wrenched the phone from one of the guys' unconscious grip. Skill-Out had managed to come before them, but luckily they still made it in time. The other line was still waiting, and the Esper wasted no time in putting the speaker on.

"What's up, you little bastards," he said into the phone as he started walking away, leaving behind just a group of men blacked out on the floor, numb and unmoving. "I'm going to reward you guys with a one-day round trip to Heaven today. And careful, you might enjoy it so much you won't feel like coming back."

"Knock it off with the stupid threats already," Mikoto mumbled as she looked around him, brows furrowing tightly together in concentration. "Where is she?"

Accelerator left her to dwell on herself, and instead focused on everything else around as he walked along the dark hallway. It didn't take long for him to hear the battling noises, and the overlapping sounds of many voices echoing near. He stopped right in front of a closed door where they were coming from, and pulled out his gun, snapping the loaded barrel ready with a resounding click.

"She's in there!" Mikoto said out loud, relief pooling at her face. "C'mon!"

"Yeah yeah."

He grouched in reply, kicking the door open and quickly firing a few shoots at the scurrying men before hiding behind the wall again. Gunshots echoed around the lecture room as Accelerator felt the bullets' force hitting his concrete shield. He turned back again and redirected his aim, this time making a shoot straight at one of the guys before he noticed a woman figure escaping through one of the exits.

"Oh thank God." Mikoto breathed, shoulders finally drooping down. "Quick! Follow her – "

Accelerator barely had time to reply when more stomping was heard outside.

"Not yet, brat."

He clicked his tongue, pulling the barrel for another reload as he turned around, just in time for a new flock of men to come flowing in the outside hallway, guns and arms out and ready.

"And don't kill them."

She added in, this time sitting back as she let the guy recharging his firearm. "Shove it" was her only response, and Mikoto sighed in annoyance, but decided against talking back anymore. Her mom was gone and out of the rebels' reach, and that was all that mattered for now. There were still many questions left unanswered yet, but they would have to wait, at least until after she could finish watching over the guy from doing anything too murderous and psychotic to other people.

Another gunshot bounced off the roof, and Mikoto winced at the damage the bullet did to the unfortunate guy, who was in perfect shooting range for the other Level 5. He only dropped his gun and gripped at one side of his shoulder, howling in pain along with the few others.

"You almost shot him in the face!"

"That was the fucking goal, genius. Now shut up and let me do my work."

x

x

x

It was well into midnight by the time they were done clearing up the building. Police cars could be seen parking outside, with headlights and horns on in warning for the civilians, blocking at the entrance. It took a bit of a detour for them to escape, and as soon as they stepped out of the door, Accelerator finally called it a day.

"You want to go home?"

"What does it look like?" the boy muttered, following her range of sight. At the distance, standing next to an ambulance and with a thin blanket draped around her shoulders was Misaka Misuzu, seemingly safe and unscathed. She was nodding along and holding the hand of someone lying inside the vehicle, and Accelerator knew both he and the Railgun had a pretty good idea of whom she was talking to. Kamijou's trademark mop of black hair and grating voice were quite unmistakable amidst the chaos inside that lecture room.

"Well, I suppose it has been a long day."

Mikoto nodded, looking on at the scene in front of her. It had been a long time since she saw her mother, and the fact that Misuzu came back for her well-being was a warm and reassuring thought, despite all the troubles.

"But I think she's going to see me at the hospital right now, though."

He snorted at the train of thought. "You wanna come there to see her?"

There was a short pause. "Uuhh, maybe not with you."

"Yeah. Good call."

Accelerator said, watching as the married woman climbed inside the ambulance and the car door shut close. The siren sang into the night as it drove off, blinking red and blue lights down the highway. The gun was starting to turn heavy in his grip, and he put it away with a grimace, the choker's batteries slowly dying against his neck. A long night wasn't even enough to cover the soreness boring down to his bones and the aching ringing in his head then.

"I'm going home."

He told the girl for the last time, pulling up the hood of his jacket. There was no more words to be said between them, no indignant huffs or soft sighs from the latter, and Accelerator turned away, disappearing down the street in the fading darkness.

x

x

x

Dreams were fickle, fleeting worlds.

But _his_ dreams, even though short-lived, had never been light, or pleasant. Back then, it was the blood and fresh of people in white robes, in guns and masks armed to the teeth, tools on their hands and horrors in their eyes as they stood around and tore every piece of him apart. He'd watch himself burst their veins open and claw their faces out, the hatred boring down to his bones and the sick satisfaction as they fell under his feet sinking into his heart. It was a restless circle, that dwelt and dwelt and tore at the deepest routes and brought out every time he looked at the world he was thrown into right then.

It was so much different these days. Different people, different places, and for once he was the one letting himself go. The girls always looked the same. Dark hair, dark eyes, cold skin. They bled blood on his hands and clawed their fingers into his heart and he just laid there and waited to die every time. He wanted to die every time.

Accelerator woke with a start.

His eyes snapped open and went wide, red, alarmed irises darting around the room in reflex. It was still dark and quiet, the clock ticking at half past 2 into the night. The albino in bed just sucked in a short groan and covered his face with a palm, swallowing back the bile in his throat. It wasn't the first time he woke up in this kind of state, but the sights lingering back never made it any easier to bear.

"Bad dream?"

Accelerator blinked, skin prickling in a jump at the voice. He quickly made a scan around the room in reflex before the realization sank in.

"Why asked when you already know the answer?"

He said instead, deep voice rough and hoarse with sleep, as little as there was. His eyelids were still heavy, and he had to shut his eyes in order to summon the power to not get up and get the hell out. There was no point of leaving the house anymore. The words were pushed out into the silent air, but the reply he got was only in his head.

Under the shadow, Misaka Mikoto looked even ashier than usual, dark crescents brimming under the girl's eyes and knotted curls framing her face. There was too much torture on her lines of skin. The girl looked like a tracing-paper version of herself, paler and almost translucent, like frosted glass. His stomach didn't twist anymore, but everything inside still burned every time he looked at dark brown, and the color was painted all over her form. Like a bleeding, never-ending trail.

Her eyes hardened at the sight of him. "You're a real hypocrite, you know that?"

The sleeping daze left Accelerator's side in an instant. "What the fuck – "

"You kill people for a living. And now you're _thinking_ about them? Like you would actually feel for them?" she sneered, words spitting out with an angry curl on her mouth.

The horrors were finally breaking out of her, like an over-bursting dam, and Mikoto let them sink in. It was pure poison watching the past SISTERS in the guy's head whilst in his sleep, and their dead eyes lingered on and on, sweeping into every nook and crane in the darkness obscuring them both.

"Why do you do that, huh?" she said, plunging on. It was the first in a long time his bloody, red eyes were entirely on her, and she planned on taking full advantage of it. The contempt was fresh and ready on her tongue, and Mikoto let everything fall freely. "Why do you go and just kill and come back acting like nothing's happened but let them haunt after you at night? Are you that miserable with yourself? Is everything just a new form of distraction for torture you make for you?"

For a moment, Accelerator just stared at the girl, hot, angry confusion pouring out of himself. "What kind of a fucking point are you trying to make here, wench?"

"I'm saying, that you're a sick excuse of a human being. You are, okay. You just went on and killed and even when you regretted it you still kept doing it. Why can't you just _stop_?!"

The addressed guy almost laughed at the notion. Stop? The miserable bitch really did not know anything about where they were, even when staying in his head and having seen everything he had to live with.

"Are you really that dense, huh?" he said instead, and pushed himself up in his head. There was no cane to support him here, and he stood steadily, hovering over her smaller form. "Are you really that fucking naïve? Did you even understand everything I did today? What is it here, huh? Little princess can't handle a little blood on her hands?"

"I...I'm not a little – "

"Shut the hell up," he snapped, stepping closer. "You may have seen everything of my life, but you don't know what they've done to me. It's not up to you, or fuck, anyone to decide how I live anymore."

Mikoto flinched at the sudden proximity, and felt her back hitting against the wall. This was all just part of his scheme to freak her out, she was sure, and tried to hold herself steady. Letting him scare her off once was more than enough times. "The SISTERS – "

"Last Order came to me," he cut her off immediately, and narrowed his eyes even tighter. "I can't bring the others back, but I won't let the rest to ever suffer the same fate again, if that's what your stubborn ass is worried about. They're my choice of redemption. They're mine to save. And I'll do whatever it takes to keep it that way."

A blink. A breath. Mikoto stared up at the guy in utter shock. He was close, much too close. They weren't even touching anywhere yet it felt like her skin was being peeled open and unraveling her piece by piece. Her heart thrummed painfully against her ribcage. Only two days of being trapped inside this endless, empty void with nothing but his snarls and insults to hear and watching her body fraying away in a hospital bed and everything was starting to not make sense anymore.

"But you killed them." She whispered, her choked voice cracking at every syllable. "You – you kill people to survive. Even when you want to save the rest now you'd still dirty your hands to do it…"

Something snapped in him. She actually saw it, the familiar flicker of something dark in his bloody eyes, something almost feral. And next thing she knew a palm was pounded right next to her head against the wall with a resounding slam that echoed all the way in her ears, rattling at her bones.

"Because no one can do what _I_ can. You think I can stop it?" he murmured, leaning down close enough for their breaths to intertwine. "You think just because I want to save the SISTERS now I'd stop the killing? That the world will stop being bad and people will stop being twisted?"

Everything was closing down on her, but before the panic could settle in his weight was gone. The hand next to her head slipped away as Mikoto opened her eyes again, this time the guy was finally stepping back and putting space between them. But the red irises never strayed away from hers, sharp and piercing to the bones.

"I'll never be you, or that miserable asshole Kamijou," he said, matter-of-factly. "If I have to kill to get what I need, I will, no matter what. My head, my rules. So shove it with that goody-two-shoes lecture."

He was turning away now, leaving her again like that same night at the railroad. He smeared his hands with blood and left her there to weep for the loss like it was the easiest thing to do in the world. Even when she had gritted her teeth and swallowed her pride and told him thanks he'd still leave. Her body was quaking more violently now, her muscles seizing up, and her erratic breaths leaving her mouth in loud bursts. The former hatred was surging up in waves and drowning all her other thoughts away, and Mikoto felt them clawing up at her throat.

"Then you deserve this, you know."

The boy faltered on his steps, but he didn't turn around. His knuckles were turning white in his fists again, and Mikoto tried to focus her gaze on them.

"All these nightmares, and – and torments. You won't stop and neither will they ever do – "

"– You'll forever be a monster."

It took a moment, but then he was turning half-way around. There was a weird look on his face, kind of a lack of a look, like all expressions just dropped right off his face. There was something salty at the corners of her mouth, and Mikoto reached up to feel the wet, burning streaks against her cheeks.

"Only because no one else can."

He finally said, before disappearing into the dark.

(TBC)

* * *

 **Note:** I was thinking of a grumpy, pissed-off Accelerator with his husky voice still thick with sleep and now I'm just a mess. Nobuhiko Okamoto is pure class _:(´ཀ`」 ∠):

Welp, I legit had a week off before summer class starts, which is tomorrow by the way. Yep. Pray for me guys.

Err, but it was a good week anyways. A good do-nothing week, besides finishing this piece right here. It was so dark and ansty I love it. Of course I'm gonna write some sad, depressing crap before school starts again. It matches the mood and all, y'know.

There is sooo much work to do, it's gonna be a busy summer this year for me! Small heads' up though, the update might or might not be slower than usual but if it is don't mind me I'll probably just be decaying away under my pile of work.

Read and review awaaaay~~ I'll see you lovelies again soon.


	6. Sub rosa

.

.

.

 **VI.**

 _ **Sub rosa**_

They never talked again.

It was the longest three days of her life.

The fact alone, technically, should be put down in record. Even though Mikoto had tried, discreetly, just a peek or a glimpse test but nothing ever came out, or in, for that matter. No indignant huffs, restless sighs, or even a scoff here and there when he stopped by the usual convenience store for his daily dose of coffee could make him turn to her anymore. The girl even contemplated maybe dropping a few insults on hand, but it would probably only be another step of going backwards for the both of them. Accelerator clearly didn't want to have anything to do with her anymore after what happened, and she was kind of owing him that much after everything she'd said.

Misaka Mikoto was still unsure of why she cried.

The wet, hot trails of tears didn't stop running, even when the guy had dissolved into darkness and she was left alone in the shadows again. She'd locked herself out of his mind completely for no less than five times and broken down into uninhibited sobs, wrapping weak limbs around herself for cold comfort. The deaths of the fallen men never looked any better, clear and bloody in her memory, but she always found herself remembering something else in those fractured moments, staring up at raw, burning red irises.

The brunette sighed as she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Her face was mostly dry now, a bit warm and sticky from all the crying. The silence was starting to feel familiar, although never less deafening. The only solace she'd ever had in this empty void was with the guy whose head she was occupying in, and now even that was gone. Mikoto would fry her throat dry before she would ever admit it, but this isolation petrified her, and the only thing that had been helping her get by so far was the guy himself.

And she had to go and bloody _ruin_ it.

She sucked in a loud breath when a small click resonated in the air, and her hazel eyes trailed up to find the door to his room slowly shutting close. Accelerator was placing the coffee can in his hand on a table, before crutching himself over to sit down on the bed.

He was holding his phone open, and Mikoto wasted no time in peeking out to look at the bright screen. The text was aligned perfectly spick-and-span, and upon reading the information put up, her hazel eyes widened.

"You're leaving?"

There was no reply besides a click of the tongue, but it was at least something after a long while of nothing. Mikoto fixed herself straighter and tried to settle back her tumbling surprise, but the words hurried out before she could think twice.

"They're taking you out of Japan," she repeated, just for a good measure to let it sink in even though she knew he'd probably heard her the first time already. "You're going to have to leave Academy City, but what about Last Order, or…or – "

"It's none of your business." He finally ground out, flipping his phone close.

It was the first few words he actually said to her after their little banter the other night, and even though every syllable was spat out with utter despite in his voice, Mikoto couldn't find it in herself to be aggravated. She was much more perturbed about what was about to go on ahead then.

The white-haired Esper did not even spare the girl a glance inside, and pivoted on his heels to get out of the room again.

"Last Order," he called as he clicked the door of the ward next to him open, and as expected, the addressed little girl was sitting on her bed in her sky blue sundress and oversized white coat. "I'm leaving."

The girl blinked at the announcement, before jumping off the bed and running to him. "'What?' MISAKA says in surprise, 'Where are you going?'"

"Avignon," he said simply. "France, apparently."

"'That's sooo far!' MISAKA exclaims in sadness. 'MISAKA wants to come with Accelerator too.'"

"No. No you're not."

The Esper muttered, in absolute finality as he stared down at the twinkling, bambi eyes. "You're gonna stay here with Yoshikawa until I come back. This is for a mission, not some damn vacation trip."

"'B…'"

"No 'but's."

He repeated, slow and steady, but blinked upon seeing the twinkling traces of tears filling to the brim on the little girl's eyes. "Hey, hey quit that."

"'Accelerator is a meanie' MISAKA says in annoyance. 'You never let me go anywhere!'"

"Because the last time you 'went' somewhere," Accelerator muttered, and grabbed at the girl's collar to drop her onto the bed in a pulp of fumbling limbs. "I got shot a friggin' hole through my brain. So no, I'm not about to get my ass hit again just to look after you while in a mission."

Last Order yelped at the surprised assault, and hissed in trying to get herself together in the pile of blankets. "'Meh, MISAKA's found way better things to do here anyways.' MISAKA says." She sighed finally, as if he was interfering with her non-existent schedule.

Accelerator figured he would be better off not pointing that out, and turned back on his heels. "I'll tell Yoshikawa when she comes home."

The only acknowledgement he got in return was a huff, and Accelerator sighed with the weight of every babysitter in the city, who's ever had to suffer the same fate like he has.

"I'll try to come back soon."

He finally said, just a volume louder than a whisper but the girl heard it nonetheless. The pout was still there, but the thin brows knitting together on the babyface were starting to detach, and the girl finally released her annoyed moue.

"'Okay' MISAKA says in defeat. 'MISAKA will be eagerly waiting for Accelerator to come back soon then!'"

He nodded, just in case any more mushy, gushy words and he might actually claw his throat out. He twisted the door knob open, only to stop on his spot when the little girl added.

"'MISAKA will look out Onee-sama's body for you two!' MISAKA promises!"

There was no reaction, whether inside or outside of him. Accelerator simply nodded, grip tight, and walked away.

x

x

x

The 11 HsB – 02 Supersonic Stealth Bombers was a huge, spacious, and _too fucking loud_ helicopter. He's lost track of how long they'd been staying on air, but it had to have been at least half an hour since he boarded the ride. The maintenance crew members had mostly stuck to the head of the copter, wary, careful looks on their faces upon seeing him, and Accelerator promptly swiveled on his heels and dropped himself on one of the seats in the main cabin, cane tucked safely at his side. The black autogiro was flying with supersonic speed, which meant they should be there at the destination in another half an hour, not to mention he had no time for chit-chatting, less to people he would likely never meet again.

A nap wasn't an option, not even after the less-than-acceptable-time-for-sleep sleep he's had last night. The grating, dark presence of the other girl had disappeared completely after the mission message was sent to his phone, and Accelerator did the only thing he was exceled at and promptly ignored it, like most other things he'd done the same in life. She was still there, just refusing to appear, and he was more than willing to indulge that request as he shoved some clothes and daily necessities into a bagpack and dropped himself back into bed.

The renewed space to think was refreshing and amicable, although his head was sort of pretty jacked up from the aircraft and radio buzz at the moment. The fact that he barely slept last night wasn't helping much either. There was no blood, screams or hot frustration running under his closed eyelids anymore, and Accelerator told himself good riddance. Everything of that girl was downright jarring to bear, from the eyes to the voice.

Even if she wasn't wrong.

He wasn't sure how many times he'd chosen not to think about it – always refusing to drill any deeper into anything he had to put his hands into. But the truth remained the same as ever, and Misaka Mikoto was nowhere above pointing it out. It wasn't even like he could blame her. The hellion she was thrown into came from nowhere else but him in the first place either way.

Accelerator shuttered his eyes closed and leaned back into the headrest, wondering why the hell he would even be thinking about this any longer. He should have been spitting with spite and pushing her as far away from his mind as she could get. He wanted to despise her, to charge back inside and tear her apart like the thing she knew he was.

But he couldn't.

He never could. Not again.

x

x

x

The plane's pressure on air was thick and heavy, and Mikoto could feel it weighing down on his body as much as it did on hers inside. Her skin was on pins and needles, and her mind was a clutter of chaos, but she knew there was one thing she had to make clear before anything else.

When she returned back to her spot under the shadows, he was there.

Accelerator's eyes were shut close, and he was leaning back against the black wall. He was as still and silent as a statue, but she didn't need to look any closer to know he'd recognized her presence.

"What the hell do you want now?"

The top Esper finally said, a low growl in his tone, not even moving an inch from his spot.

"I – " Mikoto muttered, downright surprised that he would even address her after all this time. She fumbled with the sleeve of her sweater. "You haven't come here for a while so I thought…"

"Thought what? It's my head. I can go anywhere and anytime I want…Or do you have a problem with that too?"

"No. I – no," she stopped, sucked in a deep breath before looking up at him again. "I just want to talk to you."

There she was again. Accelerator snapped his eyes open and turned to finally look at the girl. She looked even worse than the last time he saw her, as if that was still even possible. She seemed drained, like something weighed on her jaw and all the blood has run out of her face. The ashy, pallid complexion bled all over her form like a second skin. His eyes twitched.

"I don't care." He offered instead, and pushed himself up to turn away.

"Accelerator, wait," Mikoto said quickly, straightening her back and wondering again exactly what she'd intended to say. She had no clue why the other Level 5 paused on his track, but she didn't dare question it, lest he remembered his unwavering desire to stay away from her as far as possible. "I just need to talk…Please."

It took a short, yet endless moment, but then he finally sighed. "What?"

Mikoto blinked, not having anticipated he would actually let her. She released her tightly wrung hands and licked at her dry lips. "Are you still mad about…well, about what I said…the other day – "

"When you called me a fucking monster?" he finished, tone stoic, and turned back to face her. "So it matters to you now?"

The brunette almost winced back at the sudden and familiar sight of dark, maroon eyes boring into hers and the weight of his words. She looked down at her hands instead, and realized in a daze how close their skin tones were finally coming close to a match. Blanched and china-like. "I guess it does." She offered nervously.

Suspicion and shock almost made him stumble on his step, but he'd quickly caught himself in time. "What? Why the fuck does it now?" he spat angrily. "What difference does it make?"

"It does now. It does for me. I – " she stopped, short on air again. All he could see was the top of her head, but then the girl looked up, chest rising steadily. Her eyes were snapping open again, huge and determined, and he almost blinked when they bore into his in a flash.

Accelerator's jaw twitched when she suddenly took a purposeful stride, then two, three more across the empty space between them, until she was standing right in front of him. Not close to ever touch, but enough for him to incline his head lower to meet her eye to eye, facing each other. It felt wrong, it was wrong, and they both knew it. Her face, usually full of emotion and life, was calm and grey. He stared at the thinness of her wrists and the wry bone jutting out below her neck. He looked at everything of her, and just hoped his face was as equally as still.

"It matters to me." She repeated.

There was no answer to his question yet, so he compelled himself to stay silent. His hands twitched uncomfortably at his sides.

"I was…," she started again, awkwardly. "I wasn't in my right mind."

He looked at her pointedly. Oh the fucking _irony_. "Really now?"

"Can you just –" she hissed, then as if realizing what she's just done, sucked in another deep breath instead, and sighed. "Let me finish, Accelerator. Please."

It was the second time she's ever said his name since everything happened, although he didn't think the girl even noticed it, not that he would ever tell her so.

The pale Level Five didn't respond. She's clearly decided she was going to continue either way, and he doubted she would let him go if he didn't let her. He did lean back, though, swiftly putting some space between them. Even when not in a body the girl still had a scent, and it was all over the place; clouding the darkened atmosphere like an autumn fog the longer she stayed. It was such a contrast to the perpetual tang of blood and flesh he was used to – not entirely annoying, just fucking suffocating when he had to bask in it every time he was here.

"Look," she said, and he snapped out of his thoughts to focus back on her again. "I won't repeat what happened, because I was dumb and said stuff I shouldn't have. Yeah, typical of me, isn't it?"

He didn't reply, but Accelerator figured his face mush have shown his silent agreement, because the girl looked away with a soft snort, rolling her eyes.

"So yes – that," she continued, lungs depleting. "About the other day? When I…you know."

He nodded, watching the girl's chest rising with each word. For an empty, psychic void she sure as hell was inhaling a lot of non-existent breaths. Her posture was rigid, fingers burrowing knots into the fabric of her peach sweater. He knew what she was prepping herself for, and knew he would eventually wound up feeling lower than the ground if he had to listen to exactly what she was about to spew again.

"I doubt it'd be possible to hate your ass any more than I already do." He finally told her, voice calm and devoid of any emotion. She snapped up at his words right away, dark eyes wide and troubled, and the need to continue with something else buzzed around his tongue.

Accelerator felt his irritation spike, but eventually clenched his eyes shut and sighed loudly. "Consider it dealt with, Railgun."

A fascinating mixture of relief and surprise pooled on the girl's face. "I – really?"

"That," he said squarely, looking down at her with a hot glare as he took a step back. "And this never happened. If you ever bring this stuff up ever again – "

"I won't." She nodded, and shook her head hastily. "I won't."

He wasn't sure if she was just relieved at not having to apologize or finally being able to rid of his temper again, but by this time he was ready to take just about anything to fend off the tension ridging inside for the past three days. They didn't talk about it, but it was there. She wouldn't say it. He sure as shit would leave it there to stem and rot on itself if he had a choice. When their eyes met again, she let him turn away, and he never looked back.

He could feel her when he opened his eyes, and everything was finally much less suffocating.

x

x

x

It was just half an hour later when a high-pitched alarm blasted through the cabin, following by a buzzing transmission from the radio signal. One of the maintenance crew members poked his head out from the door, a wary look on his face as he came to face the Level 5.

"Part A is complete. We can now move on to Part B, and the wall over there will open once Part C begins," he said carefully. "You'll need to get your parachute on."

"I don't need one."

Accelerator muttered with a shake of his head, pushing himself up and dragging the cane with him. He turned to stare at the flat-panel monitor on the wall instead, not bothering to even sparing the other guy a second glance.

The pale Esper was almost tempted to whistle. From above, Avignon looked like it could be a miniature version of Academy City. The borders were ridged up with stone walls, with sky-scrapers shooting up tall and brooding over twisting, loopy streets.

"We're flying at supersonic speed," the other crew member continued, more confident at the Level 5's impressed look. "Air resistance raises the surface temperature of the fuselage significantly. When going at full speed, it approaches 1000 degrees so there's a lot of pipes for liquid coolant throughout the entire thing."

"Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen?"

"Yes." He nodded. "The pipes have a low freezing point passing through these tanks to increase the cooling effect. Liquid oxygen and hydrogen are used as propellant for space shuttles and they're also a part of what is used as fuel here. But that also means the cooling effect can be lost when we use up the fuel."

Accelerator turned to the guy, red eyes hard and calculating as he contemplated the thought. "So we really are going to London instead of making a U-turn and going back. I can't believe they agreed to give us supplies for the bombers," he said, and almost crackled at the notion. "Fucking hell, not even Japan has given us permission to have bombers."

The other guy chuckled nervously. He turned to finally look at the Esper, lips open for a reply when they were cut off as another alarm reverberated through the cabin.

"Part B is starting!"

He shouted to the rest of the crew, picking up his headphone and sorting through the monitor for surveillance.

Accelerator stood and watched, staring hard at the monitor when another familiar buzzing sound caught his attention. He looked out to the window to see four more bombers surrounding them suddenly changed their course with a high turn, before speeding away into the clouds. His eyes narrowed. He didn't remember seeing a jet black blade the size of the aircraft itself attached to the bottom of the bomber when he boarded the plane.

"Oh that," the crew member said, upon noticing the confused frown on the Esper's face. "Don't worry. Its surface was made so it could electrically contract. In 1/100 millimeter units, the concavity and pattern could be controlled."

Accelerator didn't reply, controlling those blades was the last thing he would be fretting about. A cutlass from one of the bombers sliced through the fluffy clouds like butter, breaking the atmosphere's pattern as wind currents got reverted. The white-haired Esper watched with utmost focus as they shot down the ground below like lightning strikes, cutting Avignon from the borders into square land.

The cabin shook out of motion as a blast broke open the ground into a trench, melting away until it collapsed on itself like a box of Tetris.

"They're trapping the city with a river of lava."

Accelerator blinked, before remembering the familiar presence lodging in him. He looked in to see Misaka Mikoto standing on her feet, peering out at the landscape under them through the plane window. Just as she said, the burned, orange rocks were molten until they were morphed into magma, pouring down the fallen trench and making a circle around the city's borders.

"It's called the 'Earth Blade'," he told her, hooking his hand into a seat handle to keep himself steady in the shaking aircraft. "With this iron sand and those blades, they can probably cut the entire super continent of Eurasia in two if they want. These bastards aren't screwing around alright."

"There's still people in the city."

Mikoto murmured, shaking her head with a deep frown. This wasn't what she'd expected when she read through the text sent to the other Level 5. "Isn't there supposed to be only one target? Why are they trapping the whole city?"

Accelerator thought in disdain at the idea, and gripped tightly at his cane. From the monitor screen, there were still many people stuck inside the old city of Avignon, except those who were lucky enough to be near the powered suit pilots, but he knew the chance of actually escaping was low. The burning lava and the 8000 degree blade would definitely bite before they would even be able to step foot on the pilots.

Inside his mind, Mikoto was a restless, unsettling wraith. Her eyes were hard and narrowed, and her hands were wringing in knots at her sides. She looked to him when she finally noticed his stare, and simply inclined her head in a nod.

"I know." He thought to her, before turning back to the former crew member again. "Hey, change of plan."

"Huh?"

"We're after the Palace of the Popes, right? Focus your attack there first."

At the guy's baffled look, Accelerator sighed, and rolled his eyes. "If that doesn't work then I'll go down there myself. If you don't hear from me after that, feel free to crash the entire old town as planned."

The guy stuttered at the request. "But y…you're only to supposed to go down when Part C begins. The calculations say that we should be able to eliminate the enemy forces with only Part B."

"Oh I trust me. I would know all about the calculations," the Esper said, and glowered dangerously. Red irises darkened at the monitor. "Never again. Change of plan."

The man stiffened at the strange pressure pushing into the air. He had never gotten a chance to look much into the Level 5's powers and abilities, but the white-haired boy was definitely deemed 'The One to wield the Power of God' for a reason. Passing the Esper a quick nod, he made a hasty grab at his radio and started on a new transmission. The man on the other line sounded less than thrilled at the idea, but gave in at the end with a heavy sigh.

"Y-your request was accepted." He told the Esper as he set the radio down, averting his gaze right away at the hardened look on the latter's face. "The plan for Part B has been changed. We will concentrate our attack on the Palace of the Popes."

Accelerator simply nodded, focused and silent as he observed the motions on the monitor screen. The isolated city was a clean cut landscape on the screen, with people scattering high and low like bees broken out of a hive.

"We have to move fast."

Mikoto said, lips curling in as she looked on at the scenery outside. Accelerator didn't reply, but turned away from the monitor instead and held on tight at his cane, readying himself. The addressed crew member was still staring, practically burning a mental hole through his head, and he promptly swiveled back to face the guy, pale brows raising.

"What?"

"Ah…nothing," the man blinked, before inclining his head in confusion. "I was just wondering, but why…?"

Inside his mind, Mikoto choked on her breath, before letting out a humorless snort. The Level 5 clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"It may all look the same to you, but there are different levels of evil out there."

He said simply, just in time a loud warning resounded through the Stealth Bomber, signaling the opening of the bay. The wind quickly shot into the cabin with a harsh blow, sharp and stinging.

Accelerator crutched himself forward, mindless of the blaring force. He titled his head back to find the rest of the maintenance crew members staring at him, dazed and far-flung.

"A first-class villain doesn't target honest lives."

(TBC)

* * *

 **A/N:** It's a crap habit of mine to only be able to finish stuff right before Monday starts, so here we are again.

Apparently it's been three weeks? I've been trying (and failing) to stay consistent with the story, and have finally come to only one grand conclusion - school is a total writing cockblock. I'll come back to reedit every chapter later for sure though, too many little, stupid mistakes shhmmn.

But thank you guys, for being patient, favoriting and following. Review as you may~


	7. Curdling the blood

.

.

.

 **VII.**

 _ **Curdling the blood**_

By the time he landed, the whole city has turned itself into a battleground. Rubbles and fires were sweeping through the wide landscape in waves. His choker was switched on and ready, and he strolled past the misty chaos, effortlessly averting any crumbles and flames away to make a path.

"Was there a fight here?"

Mikoto murmured, looking around the scenery in awe. They hadn't encountered any civilian so far, and she was starting to get anxious.

"What do you think?" Accelerator muttered, picking up a small rock before chucking it into the flames rising up in front of them. "Best to move forward. I have a target to look out for."

"To – kill?"

"To make sure that they're dead. And if not," he said flatly, before turning to her. "Then to kill."

The Esper's eyes were as fierce and scorching as ever staring down at her, and Mikoto swallowed delicately. "Right."

One of his eyebrows perked up at her reply, like he's just seen something joshing to embark on, but the guy turned away before Mikoto could fully register the look.

"We're dealing with magic here, so watch out for any signs of it. Cover my blind spots."

 _As if you have any_ , Mikoto thought darkly, but nevertheless kept her eyes alarmed. His powers were disintegrating away any mess that came shooting their way, although she doubted they could find any signs of life in these flaming rubbles. It seemed like whoever that arrived before them had managed to do an exceptional job at leveling out the city's landmark. The flame was going steadily on its way to lap up the remaining broken down buildings, scattering black ashes into the filmy air.

"It doesn't look like you have much left to clean up though."

She said flatly, lips curling in. Accelerator didn't answer, but as they went past scorching ground and grey clouds, he knew she wasn't wrong.

x

x

x

"Someone needs to tell those assholes there's such a thing as _too much_ force. Using a blade for severing continents on a flesh-and-blood human is just wrong. How the hell am I supposed to confirm the remains now?"

On the inside, Mikoto winced. Accelerator had a way of terrorizing people with just the smallest flick of his sharp tongue, and the past two hours of scouting deadland had quickly taken its toll on the albino's infamous already low tolerance for nonsense.

The poor, unfortunate crew member only stuttered on the other line, and Accelerator turned to cast another look around skeptically.

"Well, since the riots stopped after the blast, I guess the objective was carried out."

There was more fumbling for words, but Accelerator flipped the phone close before the guy could even finish, curling his mouth back into a frown.

"So what do we do now?"

Mikoto supplied weakly, closing arms around herself. The hot air was blowing smoke into every nook and crane of their surroundings, but her spine was running down with chills. She'd prepped herself for screams and chaos, not deadland and flotsam. What, or whoever Accelerator was told to look for, the government had already buried them down to the grave before he could even start searching.

"Home, probably."

He said, musing his hair up in annoyance. Eliminating a potentially dangerous target was one thing, but blowing a fucking _human_ up was just batshit insane, even for his twisted standards. They'd gone all the way here for nothing, and he didn't even get to do anything of required. The whole day had just been a total shitshow, without even the show.

"Should've just slept the fuck in."

The guy muttered under his breath, and Mikoto looked away. She'd learned a lot more profanities staying with him for a week than she had ever got to know her entire life. The top Level Five was as bad of an influence as his name could ever be. By the time they were done with whatever hocus pocus that got them stuck together, she'd probably have a wide enough vocab to make the guy trip over himself the next time they did another round of tongue lashing.

"So where to now then?"

"Did you even look around at all?" Accelerator mumbled. "Just go back to the way we went – "

There was a loud yelp in reply, surprising enough to make him almost wince, hissing under his breath.

"The hell was that for?"

"That wasn't me, genius," Mikoto snapped, turning back the same time as the guy. Her mouth curled back, ready for another snarky response before she finally took a good look at what was in front of them.

"Then what was – "

The words died in both of their throats as his powers finally distorted the smokes away. The petite, dark haired girl staring back at them was as foreign as their surroundings. There was palpable fear in her eyes, although none of the Espers was paying attention to that right there. The only visible thing they could see then was the horribly familiar dark, unmoving bob of hair lying on her lap.

For a moment, Mikoto could swear the air was being literally dragged out of her lungs, as she stared unblinkingly at the silent figure laying on the girl.

On the outside, Accelerator could practically hear the confused, angry denials ringing inside the girl's head. Silently, he fused his powers in and cleared out the rest of the smoke and falling debris, opening up the scorched ground the other two were on. The quiet ravenhead looked visibly shaken at the sight of him, but still kept a steady hand on the boy's head, as if daring him to even come close to the unconscious guy. Accelerator just bit back a curse.

Everywhere he'd gone to. Everywhere. Kamijou Touma either had some other freaky voodoo under his sleeves, or both of their lucks were just that fucked.

The girl inside his head was eating his brains away with her turbulent thoughts, and Accelerator pushed back his hair in annoyance before stepping up to the other two. The brunette flinched at his closer proximity, but still kept her arm around Kamijou stubbornly.

"Chill out. I'm not here to hurt anyone," he said, before making a quick scan around them, just in case. "Not him, at least."

It took a long, dubious moment, but then the girl released her hold around the unconscious guy, and Accelerator kneeled down to take a closer inspection. Kamijou looked pretty much like he'd just been mauled through a house on fire. There were red, angry marks scabbed on his exposed skin, and dark scratches, dirt clinging to his face. Of all the times Accelerator had seen of the guy, and this was probably the first he'd got to witness such a battered, beaten down Imagine Breaker. The sick satisfaction was going to creep up, but the Railgun squashed it dead faster than he could have even felt anything. Her jumbled, incoherent trails of panic were getting fuzzy as she fixedly peeked through his eyes.

It didn't take two and two to make sense of what'd happened. The government may have created the battleground, but Kamijou had obviously leapt into the ring and finished the fight before he could even arrive.

"Where's Terra?"

He looked up at the girl, and the apparent answer was already clear in her silent, flat stare.

Fine.

"We need to get him out of here."

He'd finally said, biting through every word. The ravenhead snapped up at him, like she'd just seen him for the first time again, but he wasn't focusing on her reaction yet. Inwardly, Mikoto looked like she'd just been hypnotized, hazel eyes wide and misty. Accelerator knew that look. He'd seen it on so many girls, so many bodies before – one that walloped his whole existence for a terrifyingly long period of time, and enough was bloody _enough_.

" _Now._ "

As if in unison, both girls flinched back to life. Nodding shakily, the girl looped her hand under the guy's neck. Accelerator grabbed him by the other arm as they made a jerky pull to get him up.

There was blood on his fingers when he pulled away, and if both he and the Railgun noticed it, they never looked back.

x

x

x

All three of them were back at the hospital again, and if there was one thing worse than an unconscious Railgun and a hurtful, frustrated Kamijou, then that would be it, and in the other way around.

This had to be some kind of conspiracy, it had to be. Accelerator didn't know what else to think. He, Railgun and Kamijou had to be some type of holy trinity of shit life, and if he was the next person to get knocked out, he would rejoice in utter gratitude, because by this time he'd rather done away with having tubes stuck in his veins and passed out on a bed than dealing with any of this.

Kamijou was all banged up in his hospital bed, white sheets drafting over his deadbeat body. He couldn't see anything from the guy's neck down, but Accelerator was pretty certain there ought to be a few gnarled knots of scarred tissues under there, if the injuries he'd seen were any indication.

The brunette, named Itsuwa, as he later came to find out, had shyly retreated away after they took him back, and Accelerator thought better than to question the girl, not that there was much to confirm either way. GROUP had taken everything to their hands and thoroughly demolished any remaining evidence of the attack. They all knew there was something beyond this whole grand scheme, but Accelerator couldn't find it in himself to think about that yet.

Kamijou's ward was, fittingly, right next to the Railgun's, and taking the five steps to check up on both of the two unconscious bodies was less than thrilling, even if he did loathe their stubborn, stupid, heroic guts. The silence was back again, and Accelerator was seriously beginning to question his sanity. He could do away with any explosions, screaming, cursing,.. But the calmness that hung in the air, when there was supposed to be people – living, breathing, _capable_ people –

There's this...instance. Like the quiet before the storm – probably the result of being squished together in a head for so fucking long, that he could tell something was about to blow, and fat chances were that it would be coming from a certain girl inside his mind. Misaka Mikoto had been exceptionally silent during the whole ride home, and if there was anything Accelerator had learned from staying with the MISAKAs, then that he would be better off keeping his own silence.

It was late again, and the wind was wild, howling through the hospital hallway like the screaming of dying men. Accelerator shut the door ward closed, and slid his cane across the floor quietly.

The silence was deafening in his ears, and he hoped to God it'd be enough to drown out the soft cries in his head.

x

x

x

Mikoto hadn't managed a blink of sleep.

Granted, sleep hadn't been a daily luxury in this form for quite a while. But at least then she could still close her eyes, slink herself away from the other guy's mind, and just stop _thinking_.

Yet even thinking had become meddlesome nowadays. One head, even of the greatest Esper, was too cramped for two trains of thoughts. Accelerator had mostly kept to himself and away from her, and she was at least grateful for the sentiment. The whitehead was a certified bastard, but even he had his moments.

But Touma – bright, oblivious, always pushing to do _right_ – Kamijou Touma. It wasn't the first time she's ever seen the boy getting his heroic butt kicked, but to be so broken down, to be gone from the mind. He had been her rock, her drive, her wish. And now all of that was laid silent and unmoving in a hospital bed, just like the rest of her.

Something's been wedging painfully in her chest, and it hurt. Nothing was supposed to happen, at least not like this. She could deal with just herself dead and broken, but never, not ever –

"God fucking hell, stop it."

Mikoto sprang up with a loud gasp, eyes snapping open to wide and stormy pools, wildly shifting around. She was dwarfed in complete darkness, and it took a moment to remember where she actually was, and with whom.

"In case you forgot, Railgun, we're both here. And your little freak-out is giving me a migraine."

Her frantic stare shot outside to see the small expanse of his room. Accelerator was sitting on the edge of his bed, facing the opposite wall with his head hung low. The familiar cane was placed neatly at the bedside, and his hands were pushed deep into his wild locks of hair, elbows propped up with his knees. The boy's eyes were tightly shut under his palms, and Mikoto took a silent moment to gather herself, feeling her chest heave with urgent stutters.

"I – "

"Don't."

Accelerator growled, the sound wretched out of his throat raw and scratchy. He tore his hands away from his hair, and leaned back on the bed. The usual circles had managed to turn even darker under the rim of his eyes, sinking the crimson gaze in even further.

"This isn't working."

He finally said, and shook his head. His harsh glare was directed at the opposite wall staring back at them, but Mikoto still felt the chill run over skin nonetheless.

"Th...This? What do you mean?"

"Me. You. This whole nonsense of staying in one head together." He snapped lowly. "You're messing with my mind as much as I'm fucking up yours. And it's destroying us all."

He was right, she knew. They both knew all along, even if the fact still didn't sound any better when finally spoken out.

"I…we're getting better. You can't hear me when I don't want you to and – "

"You _hate_ me," he hissed. "We loathe each other, Railgun. When the fuck did you ever even manage to think that this would work for one b – "

"What are you trying to grasp here?" Mikoto cried. Her heart felt too tight against her chest, and it tore at her throat on every syllable. "It's not like we could do anything about it right now. Last Order's trying her best..."

"Last Order isn't in our minds."

He said, with absolute finality. Pushing himself up and ignoring the girl's helpless gaze, Accelerator grabbed at his cane and flipped the front of his bagpack open.

"If no one can tear us apart then I will," he muttered, sorting through the disjointed mess inside. "I'll hack my brains out if that's what it takes for this to go away. Just stay put and stop meddling. Your precious Boy Wonder's done more than enough already."

"Accelerator."

The addressed guy stopped at his search, and slowly turned back to the girl in his mind.

For a moment, Mikoto looked utterly lost. Her lips parted, and a sound came up from the back of her throat that indicated the beginning of a word, but she fell silent just as quickly, mouth closing – and opening, and closing again.

They stood in silence, and as the seconds ticked by, Accelerator began to realize the heavy weight lodged down his being. The girl could say his name a million times and he still would not know how to respond, besides maybe _shut up_ and _what the hell are you trying to do_ and _we're never supposed to be like this_ – fucked up and _together_.

He wanted out. The SISTERS, Kamijou, Railgun. He wanted all of them out. Dear fuck, Aleister strike him down, he needed all of them away from him.

The word was tipping and ready on his tongue, but a familiar judder shook him out of his train of thoughts. Outside, Accelerator pulled out the phone from his jeans' pocket, and flipped it open.

"W...What is it?"

Mikoto asked, nervously fumbling with the sleeve of her skirt. The whitehead's raging frustration was bleeding all over the place inside his mind, and pushing into her uncomfortably. She'd been treating on thin ice with him for so long, and to have it directed at her everytime could only be so nerve-wrecking for so much.

But even with all the caution she could take, Mikoto was certain none would ever be enough to prepare her for what was about to come.

"It's Kamijou," Accelerator muttered, and wrenched himself away from her.

Mikoto frowned, and tried not to feel a sudden loss at the distance he'd created between them, but the words came out next stalled any other thoughts she could've had.

"He woke up."

x

x

x

For all he knew of hospitals and comas, there was always something allaying and gladden about one waking up from it. Even Accelerator himself had been on the receiving end of a few, although none would he be practically interested in going through again.

But for all he'd also learned of his punches and kicks, Kamijou Touma was one to be reckon with. And to meet the guy again, as in an actual meet-up, face to face, maybe a fist to fist later, to say that he was unnerved, could be a great understatement.

Misaka Mikoto did not share the same sentiment, of course. Her mind was in a frizz, and even if she did have some decency to try and not let it show, Accelerator could still feel it spilling all over the place on the inside, like an overflowing dam had burst in them.

It was absolutely irritating, and he couldn't bring it in himself to find out exactly why.

The first thing he saw was the glaring sunlight, shooting right into his eyes and blinding his sight for a moment as he pushed the door open. It took a while for everything to turn less blurry and morph back into view, and when he finally settled his gaze on the figure on the bed, Accelerator surreptitiously steeled himself, and walked closer.

Kamijou Touma was seated up right in his bed, slouching forward, the white blanket pooling at his lap and his bruised arms splaying on the covers. For a moment it was only silence, and all Accelerator could only see the messy, dark top of the guy's head, but then at the click of his cane against the floor, he finally looked up.

The Imagine Breaker's eyes were as piercingly blue as ever, and Accelerator was pretty sure he'd just heard a breath getting drawn in inside his head.

"You...?"

"'Bout time you got up." He replied instead, ignoring the obvious confusion in the latter's hoarse voice. "The Railgun is more than enough to fill our plates already, asshole."

There was a short moment of silence, and for a while Accelerator really considered blasting a hole into the wall just to murder the dead quietness, but everything that came out next from the hero destroyed any other thoughts he could've contemplated.

"...Who's this...Railgun?"

(TBC)

* * *

 **A/N:** When you think you've managed to build a good cliffhanger ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)

Right, it's been a while. Summer really is a writer's cockblock, not that I've been going out or anything. I just stayed home and treated myself because I've finally passed my summer class. /virtual high-five, people!/

Oh, I am going to be in Texas, 'Murica though, anybody has any cool ideas of what to do there? I'm down to try anything, esp. food. I hear they have bombass ribs...

Let's hope work won't depress me yet so that I can come back to continue this soon. Thanks for all the support guys~


	8. Between two fires

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.

.

 **VIII.**

 _ **Between two fires**_

Accelerator has never been the most patient of people. He knew this, his allies knew this, and his enemies definitely knew this. What most people didn't know was that Accelerator's true patience, which had few limits, could only be reserved almost exclusively for those he had to sort his shit out with. So when the name of the girl occupying in his head came up and the boy who single-handedly brought all three of them to this mess only looked back at him with a flat stare in reply, Accelerator simply raised his brows, and tutted in annoyance.

"Are you dense? Stop dicking around. We have stuff to deal with."

Contrary to the belief that he would get a fist in the face, Accelerator could only blink, when the addressed guy simply tilted his head in confusion.

"I…I mean, really, what are we talking about here?" Touma said, shaking his head.

"For fuck's sake – "

"Whoa hey there…"

"Accelerator?"

Accelerator stopped, swiveling around only to see another familiar figure at the door, cladded in white from head to toe, and holding a bag pack that was almost dragging on the floor, its weight obviously too much for her little body.

"Ah, it's been a while, huh?"

Index smiled easily, and Accelerator almost took a step back in instinct. There was always a reason he wanted Last Order as far away from the little nun as possible. Index Librorum Prohibitorum did not smile easily, least not to him of all people. The last time they met the little devil in disguise was on the verge of biting his head off and draining his wallet dry, and yeah, he still wished that was an exaggeration.

"Yeah, a while."

He nodded to the girl, inclining his head to the boy in bed in the process. In a matter of seconds the soft smile was wiped away, and Index' impossibly green eyes turned to him in grim acknowledgement, one that looked mismatched on the girl's babyface.

"Okay, what's going on here?"

Touma repeated, blanket pooling at his lap and obvious frustration drawing on his bandaged face. Index simply passed the boy a sympathetic smile, before turning to Accelerator again. She didn't say it, but he saw what she meant nonetheless. Not even giving the confused Level 0 anymore look, he turned back on his heels and walked away, Index following closely behind, shutting the door off.

x

x

x

"It's amnesia."

"What?"

"You know, memory loss."

"I know what amnesia means," Accelerator gritted his teeth, closing tight fingers around the crutch he was pushing on. "What I don't get is how that asshole got it." And at the worse fucking time for that matter.

"None of us is sure either," Index sighed. And really, nobody this young should ever have that much weight in just a damn exhale. "Something must have happened during his fight with Terra, but it's not like we can even ask anyway."

Right, because he was too late. Again. It was his damn mission and he was still running for it when sissy Kamijou already took the blow. It was like a never-ending cycle. He could be tearing himself up and everyone else would still get hurt. And the only two people who understood that kind of power weren't even here anymore.

But technically, "And what about the Railgun?"

"She's still here, isn't she?" Index said, tilting her head. "I saw Last Order dropping by the other day."

He nodded, mouth pulling taut. "Yeah." _Here_.

"I'm trying to find out what happened too. Guess we're all pretty busy, huh."

Index murmured, flashing him a soft grin. It didn't even reach her eyes, just dragging down like the rest of her. His mind felt as blank as an empty bottle, and the relief of having it back just for himself was nowhere to be found.

There was a soft call muffling out from behind the door, and both of them looked back. Index sighed, trying to sling the bag pack over her shoulder but failing miserably. In the end she only dropped it on the floor with a thump, gripping to one strap tightly.

"Just go."

He told her flatly. The girl only gave him a look, mouth lining out into a soft, rueful smile, before disappearing behind the door.

x

x

x

At some point, between passing by the usual convenience store and taking a turn at the round corner on the way to home back in Academy City, Accelerator thought enough is enough, and promptly pushed himself back inside his mind.

"Oi, come on out."

He said, for the fifteenth time of saying the same thing since entering the void. There was no need of name addressing, although the sole figure in here seemed to be dead set on doing the exact opposite of what he'd been repeating.

It wasn't fair. It was his mind, his rules. But if had life ever been fair, he wouldn't have a crutch for a leg and Misaka Mikoto wouldn't be a comatose.

"Dammit, this isn't the time to be sulking. We need to talk."

It took a long while, until even Accelerator decided that was enough waiting and about to turn away, because even he had limits and whichever MIKASA it was it still could _not be tolerable, goddammit,_ when the darkness finally bent and the girls' Original slumped forward.

"I have nothing to say."

Mikoto murmured, not even looking up to meet his eyes. He distinctly realized this was the first time he'd seen her sitting after that one time when they first met in here, and the feeling left his insides twisting.

There they go again. Accelerator chose not to reply instead, the usual weight of the cane was absent in his hands, and he shoved them inside his jeans' pocket. Tackling the issue first hand would only leave them fuming and frustrated, and it took a while, but Accelerator thought he was getting the hang of this. He should have realized this sooner. When it came to Misaka's, you'd always take the longer way.

So he walked closer and plopped down in front of her.

The movement startled the other Esper, and Mikoto snapped up to find herself several feet from crimson eyes and ashen hair. In a surprised fit, she tried to scramble back, only to knock her head to the wall behind her, throwing her legs out from their fetal position.

"What the hell…," she murmured to no one in particular, stroking at the abused spot on her head, not even bothering to look up again. Staying here must have been playing tricks on her mind, because under no possible circumstances, that the Accelerator would just sit down in front of her and try to ignite a conversation –

"I'm still here, you know."

Mikoto flinched, finally peeking up only to almost wince back again. The Accelerator was, in fact, sitting in front of her – a few feet away, but still close enough that she'd have to look up to meet his eyes, which were, conveniently, staring flatly back at her.

"What are you doing…?!"

She bleated, but immediately clamped up at the sound, just a few octaves higher and she would be shrieking. Mikoto was sure she'd had enough embarrassing moments with the guy as it was.

Her shoulders were hunched when they met eye to eye. "I don't want to t…"

"Shut up. Look, shit happens, okay?"

He gritted, and secretly reveled in the way she scrunched back to herself. She'd been twisting his tongue and channeling his thinning patience for the past week, it was a nice feeling to know he could still hold the effect to the same degree. It wasn't everyday Accelerator could win in a verbal fight with a Misaka.

"Huh?"

The urge to roll his eyes was overwhelming, but he gritted through. "You heard me. Shit happens, all the time, and it's not like there's much you can do to stop it, least not people like him." _Like you. And damn fuck not people like me._

He could see the way her lips tremble from all the way he was sitting. He wondered if this was just a genetic thing. Every time he pulled a lecture Last Order always either looked like she was on the verge of tearing up or shouting back at him. Accelerator knew this Misaka wouldn't cry, but just to be safe he'd refrain from yelling at her face for now. The brunette didn't seem to cry much, she just had this watery film over her eyes, and it was sort of worse than actual crying. She bottled up all her feelings inside and never let out any drop, like trying to cover up the holes in a sprinkling can.

"It's not like that," she finally whispered, staring down at his shoes. "You don't get it…"

"Yeah, and I don't care," he said, and frowned. "Hell, I don't even want to get 'it'. But your life doesn't revolve around some asshole with a suicidal streak. Everything's a bitch if you can't stand up by yourself just because one of your own kind falls."

Her eyes widened but she didn't reply. For a moment she just stared at him, like asserting an unusually difficult task.

"So what is this? Some assurance and life advice from your own past experiences?"

He snorted. "Who d'ya think you're talking to?"

One dark brow raised, as well as the corner of her lips. Accelerator would have considered it quite a win had she not opened her mouth to continue. "Oh, I don't know. The same guy who told me to shut my trap because I was breathing too loud in his head for him to concentrate."

"You were fretting. There's a difference when it gives me a migraine every fucking time."

All he got in response was a shrug. "Details."

Her shoulders loosened, and the corners of her mouth seemed to have lift for a fraction. Accelerator still felt a little like getting personally attacked with all the snark and eyebrow raises he was getting, but they had been talking for a solid three minutes without feeling the urge to shove a sock in each other's mouth yet, which was an improvement. And by this time, any progress was welcomed as far as he was concerned.

They talked for a little while later, less about the lost boy with the right hook that brought them together and more about stuff he didn't bother to remember after he left, which were mostly just the usual jabs at each other. Accelerator didn't ask her if she was okay, and neither did she say thanks. Although he thought he did hear a hum in his head when he turned the key of their apartment's door, and for once since coming back Accelerator felt his insides mellow out.

They were fine, and that was enough for now.

x

x

x

The first thing he received at the dining table in the morning, was a loud smack across the arm and a flat glare from Yoshikawa, which was to be expected.

"The least thing you could do was giving a heads' up. I thought we were getting robbed."

The scientist said simply, passing him a bowl of rice with one hand. She was still in her plain T-shirt and PJ's pants, with her short hair tied up loosely at the back. The older woman had just newly woken up, and on her usual trip to the bathroom earlier this morning she had caught a glimpse of a shadow in the kitchen, which was only Accelerator fixing himself a cup of coffee after another restless night. He supposed coming back late unannounced and standing in the kitchen wearing black was an easily misunderstood bad combo. The pale Esper was just happy his powers also reflected any incoming attacks, that frying pan the drowsy researcher swung at him would have stung like a bitch had it made contact.

"I said that I'd be back by today, and I did. What more could you ask for?"

He muttered, not even noticing the flat stare he received in reply.

"'Ne ne, what matters is Accelerator is finally here,' says MISAKA happily."

From the seat next to him, Last Order chirped – the only one who actually showed some life at the table today. Not even her older clone was sober enough to bother to show up in his mind right now. Accelerator was quite certain she was also awake the whole night like he was, for the unnamed reason they both knew yet didn't say. He didn't blame the girl. Kamijou always had a way with people, especially those he'd unceremoniously crossed path with.

"So what are you up to today?" Yoshikawa drawled on, sipping on her own cup of coffee. "No more stealthy, overseas missions that require leaving early and returning late unannounced?"

The eyeroll was too hard to resist now, and he relented. "No. I'm here. For now."

"Oh, good. Cause I need you to babysit. I'm working late today."

That was horse shit. She was a researcher, those that never even had specific clocking hours because they managed their own work. Accelerator figured she must be really done with his nonsense this time around that she didn't even try to make it sound convincing.

He shrugged. "Fine."

The only reply he got back was an eyebrow raise, but she didn't question anything further. They were way past the point of looking into his words or actions. Last Order was the only one around who truly ever showed that she cared in her childlike innocence. It seemed like wherever they went she wanted to open people up like tuna can and prod inside with a fork. Too bad Accelerator kept his lid tighter than Aleister's life chamber.

That morbid curiosity, of course, showed up as soon as Yoshikawa put on her lab coat and left for work, shutting the apartment door closed.

"'Ne ne, how is Onee-sama?' MISAKA asks in concern."

"Still there. Not like she could actually go anywhere," he grumbled, and took a big gulp of his coffee. "How's your search panning out?"

"'Not much' MISAKA admits honestly, 'MISAKA's been asking around with other Sisters but they didn't know much either. MISAKA thinks MISAKA will do better if MISAKA knows what exactly happened when Oneesama'd undergone the transformation.'"

"Kamijou's useless then," _Fucking convenient_. Accelerator could feel another migraine showing up already. "Who else could you ask for?"

"I think I know."

Inside his mind, Mikoto said, finally deciding to speak up. Accelerator arched a pale brow at her, but the only look he got in reply was much more somber than it was needed. Something told him he should definitely get his refill of caffeine soon if he wanted to get by today.

"But trust me, you are not going to like it."

x

x

x

"You have _got_ to be shitting me."

"I wish."

Mikoto mumbled, looking out in wary at the view opening up in front of them. Tokiwadai Middle School looked as extravagant as ever, students were pouring in and out in their rush to classes and clubs. She didn't even realize how much she'd missed stepping through the familiar gate until she was finally here again, albeit preferably in a better condition than this.

"It's a girls' school. How the hell am I supposed to go in?" Unless he did cross-dressing. Accelerator would rather choke on a nail.

"You don't. Just wait out here until she comes."

"Who are we looking for again?"

"Misaki Shokuhou. The fifth ranked Level 5. Mental Out. C'mon, surely you must have heard of her?"

The name rang a bell, but he didn't even bother to try to remember anything more. All of his meetings with other Level Five's so far had been less than thrilling. He'd do himself well not reminiscing any of such.

"Doesn't matter," he shook his head instead. "How was she involved in your stuff anyways?"

There was a heavy sigh on the other line. "Long story. I'm not sure how much she'd know either, but she was in contact with the man that started that experiment and parts of her powers were used to help amplify it so hopefully we can get some lead."

It'd better, he snapped, to no one in particular. Last Order had been quickly handed off to a Sister working in a facility nearby. It would do them no good if someone recognized a younger version of their school's infamous Ace. The few curious glances and girly giggles he received so far were more than enough to last him a lifetime. Having ten thousand mindless, robotic girls in his head was one thing, getting actual teenage girls giving him passes was just downright wrong.

"If this chick doesn't show up in five minutes I'm gonna lose it."

"Just relax will you?! She'll be here. Be pa – "

She fumed breathlessly, turning irritated herself. Although the rest of the words quickly died inside her throat, when she finally noticed a familiar figure approaching them from the opposite direction. One with a stripped green armband and curled pig tails, with dark chestnut eyes, that bore into her whole when the latter finally recognized Accelerator.

"Oh God…"

"What – "

"YOU – "

* * *

 **A/N:** Yeah, after a month of not updating I expected this to be longer too.

Anyways, I've been running around back and forward a lot lately. Texas was fun but all has to come to an end, and next thing you know things come pouring in again. It sucks.

I'm not sure how long the next chapter is going to be, but rest assured many juicy stuff is gonna go down. I've always wanted to write a meet-up between Misaki and Accel, I think it should be fun, and crazy, but mostly fun. Especially when with a certain teleporter thrown into the bunch too. Yippy.

Also shoutout to /u/LoserxLoser for suggesting Raising cane's. Those were indeed some tasty chicken :))

Thanks for all the support guys! I'll try to be back soon.


	9. Catch-22

.

.

.

 **IX.**

 _ **Catch-22**_

Accelerator knew people. He knew how they saw him. He knew what kind of stares and whispers he'd get when out in public. What he didn't understand, in this moment, however, was the deep rooted hatred burning like fire through fabric in the other girl's eyes as she glared unblinkingly at him. He had not even managed to lift a finger to do anything. At least not yet.

"Me?"

He replied flatly, with a same expression to match, which seemed to only aggravate her more. Her nostrils flared, and her hands lowered to skim through just right at the corners of her skirt, and Accelerator readied his hand, just in case he'd need to hit on the choker's switch if the glower he was receiving was any indication for more hospitality.

"Yes you – How could you even think of showing yourself here after everything you've done to Onee-sama, huh?! You freaky, selfish, intolerant bas – "

"Friend of yours?"

He said flatly, which seemed to have woken up the girl in his mind from the shock.

"Yes!" Mikoto squeaked, turning around frantically. "Change of plan. Time to go."

"What? You dragged me here brat. I ain't going nowhere until we see this chick and get our shit sorted ou – "

"I know what I'm saying!"

She snapped, cutting him off as she stared at the wild girl marching their way. Mikoto knew that look in Shirai Kuroko's eyes. She would know that look anywhere when something happened to her. "Look, it doesn't matter you're the strongest guy out here. She's the last person you'd want to have a beef with. Can we please just go? We can come back tomorrow – "

"Stop it right there you!"

 _Too late_ , Accelerator mused, and watched with a strange sense of curiosity as the pig-tailed girl halted to a stop in front of him. Her nostrils were flaring, her knuckles were turning white, and there was a wild, crazed stare in her eyes – usually people would only don this look after he's managed to have done some damage. Accelerator's brows furrowed under his pale bangs.

"What?"

x

x

x

For Misaki Shokuhou, that afternoon was supposed to be just like any other day.

Class had just ended, and the blond had wasted no time in walking out, a trail of girls – both younger and older than her, following closely behind. Any welcoming smiles, soft voices spoken her way was met with the Level Five's usual ignorance. She knew why she had this club founded, she understood how she needed these girls, but the way they would tread around her never made it any easier to feel normal, or just a sense of belonging. She was a bloated balloon waiting for a needle, and whoever made the wrong move would be the one getting it blown to their face first.

It kind of sucked. At least _Misaka_ knew how to hide it behind her nauseously cheerful and friendly acts.

The fact that the infamous brunette was absent from school and in a "temporally" coma only made it worse. Ever since word got around that 'the' Misaka Mikoto got into an exceptionally nasty fight that left her breathing through a tube and lying motionless in a hospital bed, Misaki had been Tokiwadai's newfound hope, and the sheer idea of it made her sick to her stomach. She was never anyone's role model, and she never should be dammit. Hell, she was one of the reasons their beloved Ace was put in that state in the first place.

Skimming through everyone's thoughts at school only made her frustrations more unbearable, so Misaki had been doing one of the few little things she knew she exceled at, and promptly ignored everything around.

Maybe that was probably why, when she finally reached Tokiwadai's obnoxiously extravagant gate, it took her an embarrassingly long while to make sense of what was happening, and when it finally it, Misaki Shokuhou could have sworn her own heart had stopped at the sight of a very familiar, and very terrifying figure.

x

x

x

"Trudging in right here and acting like you have every right to be – as a proud member of Judgement, I demand to know what and why you are here, you freaky, obdurate – "

Accelerator's brows deepened, a crowd had started to form around them, consisting of mostly whispering, pointing teenage girls, and yet Shirai Kuroko – as she had so proudly claimed herself to be for the past five minutes, had not seemed to have noticed it one bit. He'd stopped listening after "albino, unapathetic bastard" and had started trying to look through the forming crowd for any trace of the other Level Five chick again, but Misaka Mikoto still hadn't stopped yelling in his head to just turn around and walk away "before she tried to teleport a needle through your throat you asshole!". (They both knew it was total bull. Accelerator would turn Kuroko's ignorant Judgement ass on herself faster than she could finish saying bastard again, but even Mikoto was proud enough to not say that out loud.)

Alas, in the end, Kuroko, who seemed to have realized she'd only been screaming to a brick wall, was finally fed up and was trying to reach for a needle strapped under her skirt. The move of course did not escape Accelerator's trained eyes, and the top Esper was more than ready for it – his AIM shield sturdy and the choker fully charged and switched on. He would shut this arrogant brat down once and for all, Misaka's feelings be dammed, when something suddenly caught the corner of his eyes.

Or someone, if Misaka's previous description of "arrogant, overgroomed blondie" was any indication.

 _Hey hey geez shut it for a sec_ , he told the fretting girl in his head, and discreetly jutted his chin to the direction he was looking at. _Is that the girl?_

Mikoto halted in her haze, and furrowed her brows at where Accelerator was pointing at, Kuroko's villain rage suddenly forgotten. True enough, the tall, elegant blonde, still in her trademark white lace gloves and thigh highs, was staring unblinkingly their way with wide, disbelieving eyes, a bunch of minions surrounding her also frozen in their spots. She wished she could be surprised Misaki would recognize Accelerator.

"It's her," she quietly told him, shoulders slumping.

"About damn time."

Accelerator thought, and readjusted his cane. Not even sparing the girl in front of him a second glance, he promptly moved past her and trudged forward, the silent crowd automatically parting a way for him – the guy's threatening aura unmistakable. The blond girl seemed to have woken from the initial shock at his movement, and instinctively moved a few steps backwards until she noticed the dark glare in his bloody eyes. Misaki's hand was still clutching at the strap of her bagpack when he stopped in front of her.

"You're the mind-reader Level Five – "

"Misaki Shokuhou." Mikoto said.

"Misaki Shokuhou?"

He repeated, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. The girl looked ready to break into a sprint as soon as he turned around, and him looking bored while trying to have a decent conversation with her was the last thing they needed right now. Accelerator had been (and listened) to too much crap to back out then.

The blonde nodded, her elegant, perfectly trimmed brows slowly furrowing, but that was all the confirmation Accelerator needed.

"We need to talk," he told her.

"About me," the girl in his head said.

"About Misaka Mikoto."

He finished, feeling absolutely fed up with the day. If this chick tried to make this anymore difficult than it already was, he was gonna go kill something, the mission be dammed.

Luckily for them, Misaki Shokuhou seemed to have much more sense than a lot of people around here – a strange exception out of the bunch of Level Five's. The girl had simply nodded, silent at the mention of the Electro girl's name, and gently released her hold on her bagpack.

Accelerator figured that was their cue, and quickly gave her a sign to leave with him right away by inclining his head and turning away. Misaka Mikoto didn't say anything more, neither did the girl, and he wasn't sure if this was a sign to something better or worse.

x

x

x

"So, uh, you knew what happened to Misaka-san I suppose?"

The girl, as they went into an empty street corner a couple feet away from Tokiwadai, started, albeit awkwardly.

"More or less," Accelerator shook his head. He'd expected himself to be the one doing all the prodding and questioning, not a two-way conversation. This chick turned out to be not so bad after all, no wonder she and Misaka didn't get along.

 _Hey, I heard that._

"But it's not enough," he continued, promptly ignoring the fuming girl in his head. "Look, I need you to tell me everything you saw on that day."

"That's fine enough for me," Misaki shrugged, the tensed manner slowly slipping away now that she realized the pale Esper hadn't been leaking out any killing intent. He seemed to only be fixated on what he was asking her for, which was odd considering who they were talking about. Her brows furrowed at the thought, and she carefully peeked up at the guy in front of her. Since she couldn't possibly tread through his mind, maybe – "But why would you want to know this?"

Misaki could almost see the thought running through his mind. The older guy obviously had anticipated this question, his eyes snapped shut for just a second and the breath he released was just a tad louder than usual when he finally looked at her again.

"I know this shit sounds weird, and abnormal, and whatever, but it's the truth," he said, voice flat and stoic yet still full of warning. "Believe it or not, the Railgun's body is the only thing lying in that hospital, because her consciousness is trapped in my mind right now."

x

x

x

"I beg your pardon?"

Misaki repeated, flatly staring after the white-haired boy in front of her. Accelerator has always been a troubling equation to solve, but even people like him had to have limits, or maybe she really was that clueless. The blood red eyes looking back at her did not help their case at all right at the moment.

 _That was a horrible explanation._

 _I ain't repeating shit._

Accelerator grumbled, mentally rolling his eyes at the brunette. Mikoto was finally looking a little less troubled and more amused, and he really started to regret hoping for her to be so just moments ago.

"Look," he muttered, ruffling up his bangs and looking at anywhere else besides the blonde. "I'd show you if I could, but I cannot. So take it as it is. I'm not here to relay crap to you. I just need to know what happened that night, because whatever voodoo trick you pulled with your powers, it's affecting the Network, and that wench – "

The girl's hand had started to tighten around the strap of her bag again, and Accelerator took his chance, staring straight back at her wide, startled golden eyes.

" – and me."

x

x

x

"His name was Kihara Gensei,"

Misaki sighed, rubbing at her elbow. Just the thought of the self-obsessed scientist was enough to run chills up her spin, and upon peeking up at the guy in front of her, she supposed they shared the same point of view.

Of course it was a fucking _Kihara_.

Inwardly, Accelerator tutted, feeling just a tad bit like exploding something up. He should have seen this coming honestly. Kihara would sniff out anything that had the tiniest trace of "Level 6" on it. Getting their dirty hands on other Level Five's after him should only be inevitable.

"He used a device I built up to amplify my powers and used it on Misaka-san," she explained. "By the time I found out about it, she was too far gone."

"Where's that thing then?"

"Destroyed during the transformation," she shook her head, before suddenly remembering something. "I…I still have a remote I used at that time. It probably won't help much but it maybe something."

"Good enough – "

"It's in my dorm though…"

"…Your dorm? Tokiwadai dorm?"

"I mean, I go there…so yes."

 _God fucking dammit._

 _Stop with the cursing already, geez._

x

x

x

"Are you sure about this?"

"Did it look like I was welcomed in that hellhole just now? Yes I am sure about this."

"I mean, I can erase memory. We can just walk in and out and it'll just be like nothing's happened."

Accelerator frowned at the thought, but then pictures of the pig-tailed hellion with needles under her skirt (who the _fuck_ stacks needles under their skirts?!) and the blood-thirsty eyes stuck to his every move mentally popped up, and he forcefully shut down any ideas about walking past that school's gate again.

"Just go."

The blonde gave him a look, but she didn't do anything more than passing him a nod before going on her way. A few girls started surrounding her as soon as she reached the campus, and Misaki passed through them breezily, ignoring the trail of following girls. Accelerator was almost tempted to whistle.

"Damn, what is she? Tokiwadai's Miss Beauty Pageant?"

"You can say that," Mikoto mumbled, and that was definitely a sigh he heard in his head.

"So what're you then?"

"Not enough, One. Never enough."

She's on a nickname basic with him now, Accelerator wondered if the chick noticed, not that he'd ever say so. Dawn was breaking down behind them, dark spots covering over the clouds, and he quickly crutched back into a neat corner hiding from plain sight. There's something odd in the air today, and somehow he had a feeling Last Order's tea party would have to wait for a while.

x

x

x

Here's what Shirai Kuroko knew.

Misaka Mikoto was a trainwreck in the making, with nothing and no one to stop it, how matter how much and how long they consistently stayed. Kuroko was one of them.

Not that knowing this helped her case at all. Mama always complained about how stubborn and hard-headed she could be, and this was her proof – her most obvious, most truthful evidence. Onee-sama could whine, push her away, tape her out with electricity, but the truth was that Shirai Kuroko was hopelessly, endlessly infatuated with the Level Five's notorious brunette.

She was there, every night, sometimes early and sometimes late but she would always make sure to be there – stacking Mikoto's quiet ward with Gekota's and flowers. Sometimes, she saw her mother. Sometimes, she came with Uiharu and Saten.

One time, she saw him.

Touma was the only guy to visit, although the only time he did was when he carried Onee-sama's lifeless body here. She never saw him again and just the sheer fact of it put fires to her very core. She lost her faith in boys a long time ago, but Mikoto never has. Mikoto doesn't lose faith in anyone but herself.

This boy was different, though. It wasn't hard to tell, he looked the exact opposite of Touma even as she could only see a glimpse of him from the furthest corner outside of Mikoto's ward. His hair was as white as snow, skin almost as pale as the walls surrounding them. There's a crutch in his hand, although the hairs at the back of her head told her to never underestimate those gangly arms and legs.

She waited for him to do something – anything. Touma sat at the chair beside the bed with his hands in his hair, never once looking up, yet this guy didn't even sit. He just stood there, almost like a statue had she not seen the white of his knuckles around the crutch. That was how she knew he had something to do with Mikoto. That was when she knew.

Saten, for all her urban legends' obsession, wouldn't understand the world they lived in. Uiharu only knew more because of their line of work in Judgement, but this guy was of something else – something above all of them and yet he came to Misaka Mikoto like clockwork, like her. And when he showed up on their campus, her and her Onee-sama's school, everything in her just snapped.

Kuroko's instincts were running wild. It's only been a few hours since the white-haired terrain and that Misaki Shokuhou left Tokiwadai campus, and she needed to find Uiharu fast. She'd managed to teleport away before Misaki could pull her nasty mind-erasing tricks on her, although the crowd that saw them weren't so lucky, not that she minded. Uiharu texted her earlier, something about a little girl with an ahoge that needed help, but she figured she should be back in the office by now.

When she burst into Judgement, only the silence greeted her back.

x

x

x

"She's not the first Level Five you met."

Somewhere between waiting for a blonde and dying out of boredom in an empty street corner of Tokiwadai Middle School, the Misaka Mikoto in his head was suddenly feeling chatty. Accelerator wasn't very amused.

"So?"

"I don't know. It's just weird," she shrugged like it didn't matter, but he knew that tone better. "She's the first I knew and came into contact with. Touma knew her too. But then there was this explosive chick, Four – she's kinda crazy – "

"Fuck yes she is –"

"Oh wow you knew her too? Great so I'm not alone then. And then this guy who was there with Touma when I, you know, he was a Level Five too…"

"What the hell are you on about?"

"I'm just saying," she repeated, exasperated, looking at him. Somehow, her eyes were darker than he remembered. "There's legit only seven of us in this city – hell, this world probably and we're all connected and screwed up in some ways yet we never even asked for help from each other. People built _buildings_ for us like we're some kind of war heroes and we don't even know each other."

"Yeah. And that was smart," he muttered. "They handled one freak at a time. Sick motherfuckers."

There was silence, and when Accelerator thought he was finally off the hooks, she spoke again.

"I saw you. When…when you were in their research facility I mean…I wasn't being noisy I swear. Just that, you thought about it sometimes."

He didn't answer her back, but Mikoto knew better. He had his nights as much as she would, more even. And in the cramped space that was his mind they shared, there wasn't any barriers to turn herself away from such personal things. It's a myriad of tiny memories, like a shattered mirror. Dozens and dozens of glass shards like needles in his skin, on her skin.

Everything was always so hazy, but she could make out enough – could make out walls trapping him inside, food trays being shoved through a peephole, sharp needles stuck in too young, too bony wrists.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't need your fucking sorry."

Inside, something in him snapped. Accelerator knew she wasn't sorting through his memory, it's already ingrained in her own and he could see himself in it. Cold, small, naked to gloved hands and the fury sluiced down his stomach like liquid acid.

There were days – days he'd choke himself to death before going through again but there were days. And. There's a day when men in white coats came down and looked at him for a long time. They pulled back the steel door and stared at him through just the bars. Opened the bars and ogled him through the open door.

It didn't seem to matter much. He's been cold for years then. Barefoot and raw-bloody fingertips and his voice like he's been chewing glass.

But they pushed him out of that room, pulled clothes over him and put him into a coma. "Child," they hushed, "Errors," they said, and he told himself he would rip the heads out from their bodies as soon as he got out of this shithole.

He was a quiet child in their hands, but there was one who wasn't. There was one who screamed and howled and let himself be sedated, put into a bed as they tore out his abilities – the tall, lanky young boy that created a substance of his own. The boy that glared at him through the peephole and grinned at him through the glass before they took him away.

"Who was he?"

There were rocks in her throat, but somehow Mikoto knew she needed to hear this.

"Too much, Third. Always too much."

(TBC)

* * *

 **A/N:** Somehow the further I go the further I stray from the canon timeline _sighs_

Anyways, last time I updated this story was five months ago. That's pretty sad. I screwed up my Accounting class and I'm missing the first week of this upcoming Spring semester though so yeah, life's been great! /dammitihatecollege/

But family and friends and good Vietnamese food saved me a bit, I've definitely missed home a lot. Still in Hanoi right now even though I should be packing to leave again, it sucks. Buuuuuuut since I'm not going to school next week, I'm gonna see how much I can continue these upcoming chapters.

Thanks a lot for reading and favoriting and following~~~ Review as you may!


	10. Harum Scarum

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 **X.**

 _ **Harum scarum**_

"His name was Kakine Teitoku"

"What?"  
Mikoto blinked, staring out at the wide street expansion. The cars and people were passing by in blurs, but the only thing she noticed was the curled fist around the boy's crutch.

"The boy in your memory?"

"Yeah," Accelerator muttered, kicking a rock down the road. "Those fuckers used to put us in the same research building. Something about the Error Kids. I used to see him getting strapped to a metal bed while they stuck tubes to him and he would just stay there and happily follow their lead. Sick freaks."

If they really were receiving the same treatment, this really didn't make any sense. Mikoto frowned. "But…why? It's torture. It's…wrong."

"For most people," he scoffed, rounding at a corner.

"And the others?"

They stopped at a red light, swiftly blending to the strands of people in the streets. The sun was coming down from afar, casting shadows on the ground, disfigured and morphed. Accelerator stared after them, and remembered the last day of his life then, when a black substance rose up behind the door and drew blood after its trail.

"It's everything they had."

x

x

x

Uiharu's instincts were running wild, and trying to sort out the barrage of impulses and intuition was like trying to categorize a hurricane – like trying to differentiate wind from rain and rain from flailing debris. It's not just one thing; it's too many little things.

But more painful were the twitches and sparks of electricity running through her veins. She gasped, scratched around, trying to crawl away from the source of pain as much as possible and yet his hands and feet never stopped pinning her down.

Above her, there was laughter. Sick, mechanical laughter that bubbled up every time he twisted a limb in his grip. The guy was talking, warning her for something but she couldn't, wouldn't hear. He's asking for the little girl.

And Uiharu would die before she opened her mouth.

x

x

x

It had to be half an hour of them standing here and waiting for the blonde, and Accelerator was having serious trouble with keeping his patience in line.

"This is a fucking scam."

He said, to no one in particular but the girl in his head had a different thing in mind.

"Maybe her room is just too messy so she has to dig around a bit?" she shrugged. "Overgroomed girls are usually pigs at home anyways."

"I don't care, and that was unnecessary as fuck." She's been giving him more details about girls more than he could ever be comfortable with. It was annoying.

"You're more than welcome to come in and look for her."

She was definitely having a good time pissing him off. Accelerator was in no mood to have that.

"I'm giving her five minutes." He finally muttered.

"Ah, so generous."

"Shut it."

Even if he did say so, there really was something odd hung in the air. Accelerator usually relied on his instincts, and most of the time they weren't wrong. They couldn't be standing here and waiting forever if something bad was about to happen.

The street they stood at was getting emptier by the minute.

"It's only past six a bit…Where is everybody?"

Accelerator didn't answer, which made the girl huff. But Mikoto frowned, looking around them and making a quick scan of the area. They must have been thinking of the same thing, because in just a few seconds Accelerator already picked up his cane and pushed himself off the wall. He was definitely seeing something she was either, she wasn't about to object against looking for what it was.

As soon as he left the alley, Kuroko's voice boomed through the campus.

"The fuck is it now?"

Accelerator grumbled, but it didn't seem to stop the girl that was running towards them. He readied the switch of his choker, ignoring the yells in his head, and turned to the brunette. In just a few seconds, she's already managed to appear right before him.

"Wait, I'm not here to fight."

Kuroko said, breathless from her run. Her eyes were a tanned color of hazel, with pupils huge and dilated. She's seen something, Accelerator frowned.

"What?"

"It's…It's about my friend. Not Misaka. But our friend…Someone, I don't know who, but he has her and he keeps talking about a little girl but Uiharu wouldn't tell him where she is…"

 _Uiharu?_

Inside, Accelerator could feel the girl piercing everything together through the strings of words the Judgement brat was trying to say, and as soon as the name came up, it felt like something fractured inside her.

Accelerator couldn't blame the girl, if the little girl Kuroko was talking about was who he was thinking of.

"Where is it?"

Judgement stopped on her tracks, and for a second there, the loud-mouthed brat had the nerve to look nervous. Accelerator was almost impressed.

"I'll take you there, but please, help her."

He nodded, but if the fretting girl in his head was any indication, he had a feeling there would be more than one person that's going to need saving tonight.

x

x

x

"She's...wary of you."

Accelerator had to mentally pause at the words. "She threatened to stab me with the needles under her skirt."

"Yeah, because she's wary of you," Mikoto said in defiance. "What did you do? Did you guys ever meet?"

"No, and why the hell would I ever come in contact with a crazy brat like that?" but then there was Kamijou, and Last Order, and the Railgun, who smirked at his trail of thoughts. "Ah, fuck it."

"I called her a couple of times but no response."

Kuroko called out, interrupting their little mental chat. The girl frowned when she noticed him looking up, but made no indication to address it. Her posture was tense and rigid, and Accelerator had to wonder if they had ever really met. He was certain only Shokuhou knew of his identity in that hellion of a school.

"Got a tracker?" he nodded to the badge on her arm, and the girl made a small flinch, subtly shielding her Judgement arm away from his view. Accelerator's brows rose.

"Y – yes. Give me a minute."

"Seriously, what did you do?"

"I didn't do shit. She's just scared." He muttered back in annoyance. It wasn't an unwelcoming notion, the fact that his presence alone could send people on edge, but there was something odd in the girl's stand.

"She's your best friend?"

There was a pause. "Yeah, why?"

"Does she know about Kamijou?"

"Not much, but yeah. What's the problem?"

"Nothing," he stifled a scoff. "She's just worried about what I can do to your friend."

"That's not a surprise."

If the Railgun ever got back into her body, he swore, but she wasn't the matter right now. The skies were getting heinously darker, and if his senses were right, he knew this thickening tang of force in the air.

"Accelerator – "

Mikoto whispered, grasping the atmosphere through his skin.

"Oi, your friend," he called out, stifling another sneer when the girl carefully turned back to face him. "She's in trouble, and if you want my help, forget whatever beef you have with me for meddling with Railgun for now. Just find the location and take me there."

For a moment, the girl – Kuroko looked lost, the hand that was hovering over her skirt dropped, and she nodded swiftly, holding up her tracker for him to see.

"Her name is Uiharu."

Accelerator frowned at the location, peeking over just to see a hand opening up in front of him.

"I – I'll take you there."

There was a small thank you in her trembling words, and Accelerator didn't take time to bore through it. Her only acknowledgement was a firm grip on her wrist, and Kuroko nodded grimly, closing her eyes.

x

x

x

For Kakine Teitoku, there was ever only one thing that mattered.

Not the blood they pulled out of him, or the serums they injected in him, the words and whispers and reports scattered on lab desks, because it never really mattered as much as a scrawny little kid in a caged cell, who did absolutely nothing and still owned the world in his hands – the only kind of power Kakine had ever needed.

"We really didn't have to do this the hard way," he muttered, staring down at the writhing figure under his feet. "I know I'm a scumbag, but I have my limits, and they don't include people like you if you'd just cooperated with me, girl."

The girl's limbs are bent at all awkward angles, her face tortured in pain and her lips are breaking out in little breathless gasps. The sight brought no pleasure to him, but Kakine wasn't in the blinds. He saw the little girl run away, saw his only chance of reclaiming his stance disappear in the crowds, and it is long past the time when he could still forgive. In a quick glance, he looked up at the people again.

No one dared to look at them.

"But, you've been of no help despite my generosity today," he sighed, putting away the Tweezers again. "Guess your time is over, girl."

The only response he received was a harsh whimper, the girl's crooked limp shaking in his grip. He twisted her arm back and watched with manic glee as she screamed. Her end was coming near, and he would be the one to deliver the final blow.

A crash, and Kakine felt it before seeing it come. The object swung by with a loud gush of wind that sent him reeling back, detaching the grip he had on his victim. Metals and glass shards from the ATM machine broke out on the pavement, and he whipped his head back to see a pale, crutching figure approaching. A glaring, sneering shadow.

Kakine smiled.

"Well, if it hasn't been a while…"

x

x

x

It was ridiculous, Mikoto thought, because he shouldn't be here. He shouldn't be leaning against the wall opposite from her in their little cave-mind, staring at her like he didn't just pluck an ATM machine out of the ground and chuck it down the street to the second strongest of their kind. From her spot, she could still see the other boy outside from afar, tall, brooding with a manic glee that was less than foreign to her. She wanted to grab his arms and shake him, slap him back to the reality facing them out there, but there wasn't any time. For once, she could not waste her breath with him on circling around the subject, so she'd just have to do what needed to be done, and say what needed to be said.

"You know I can help. You've felt it."

"Tough luck," Accelerator shook his head, the pale strands gleaming in the dark. It was almost surreal sometimes, the way he looked, unlike anything she's ever seen. Like glass shards under water – translucent yet always arcane.

"And why not?" she asked, holding her head high, and she realized that she might have to banter back and forth a little bit first before her courage was intact enough. It wasn't all bad, so long as it was only a little.

"You don't need an explanation," his eyes narrowed. "You just want to do good and get revenge. That's not how it's gonna be today."

 _He was my business_ , was the implication, but Mikoto couldn't help it. Uiharu's arm was broken and stepped on. The fury was fresh and burning inside her, and she knew he could feel it too, licking up every nook and crane like fire inside their shared space.

"Fucking hell, look."

There wasn't an 'at me', but his growl must have been enough, because the girl turned back to him again with a blink, small, slender hands were still clutching tight at her sides. Huge, hazel eyes were wide and dilated with inane anger.

"Pull your head out of your ass and _think_ for a sec. If you want me to stop him, you need to get a better grip of your emotions." From the corner of his eyes, he could see Kakine turning around and preparing to strive towards them. Kuroko had already whipped out of thin air and dematerialized next to the unconscious girl, and in a flash they were both gone.

"I – I can't…She's hurt. So many of them have been hurt. You know perfectly well! So why don't you…"

But he only looked at her. Her heart was beating against her chest like a furious bird trying to break out of her rib cage. It felt awful. She needed to do something about it. Why wouldn't he understand this? She tried to make herself spread the fingers of her clutched fists, but all she succeeded in doing was pulling them back and giving him an intent stare of her own. At least, she wanted it to be an intent stare, but it probably came off as embarrassed and quizzical instead. It's been days since she stayed with the guy, and she still could barely hold herself together around him.

"Fine, look at it like this then," he eventually said, and propped himself off the wall. "If you fuck up, I'll fuck up. And we'll both be dead." He stepped back, and they were finally face to face, their eyes leveled. "Can you do it now, kid?"

"I'm not…," she said instinctively, before recognizing her mistake and mentally batted it away. "And if something happens?"

She'd already made the calculations in mind before they even came here, all the ways he could go wrong and they could be actually, royally fucked and dead. She didn't deliberately say it, although Mikoto thought he got the message, judging from the grimace she could feel him making.

Kakine was grinning at them.

"Protecting the weak wouldn't just magically make you a good guy, One."

"Maybe."

Accelerator's voice was thick and hardened, and Mikoto could feel it rumble through her like crackles of electricity. His power was denting the air, and she reeled herself back. This wasn't a battle, but a war, and she would have to stay and watch the destruction unfold. His steeled blood eyes the only thing she saw before he disappeared from their void.

"But even villains can have standards."

(TBC)

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 **A/N:** So I'm still alive, hopefully it'll stay that way after this upcoming final too.

Short chapter I know haha. I had this finished half-way since friggin March and it only got done today it's so sad. I'm gonna have a week off before a crammed 3-week summer course I have to take in June but after that I'll be flying home again which means free time which means lazying around and writing more eheheee. Wish me luck people!

Thank you for all the reading, following, favorites and reviews. They're great motivators. Keep them coming if you may~


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